The Mill on the Floss
by George Eliot
“In their death they were not divided.”
Contents
| [BOOK FIRST.] BOY AND GIRL. |
| [Chapter I.] Outside Dorlcote Mill |
| [Chapter II.] Mr Tulliver, of Dorlcote Mill, Declares His Resolution about Tom |
| [Chapter III.] Mr Riley Gives His Advice Concerning a School for Tom |
| [Chapter IV.] Tom Is Expected |
| [Chapter V.] Tom Comes Home |
| [Chapter VI.] The Aunts and Uncles Are Coming |
| [Chapter VII.] Enter the Aunts and Uncles |
| [Chapter VIII.] Mr Tulliver Shows His Weaker Side |
| [Chapter IX.] To Garum Firs |
| [Chapter X.] Maggie Behaves Worse Than She Expected |
| [Chapter XI.] Maggie Tries to Run away from Her Shadow |
| [Chapter XII.] Mr and Mrs Glegg at Home |
| [Chapter XIII.] Mr Tulliver Further Entangles the Skein of Life |
| [BOOK SECOND.] SCHOOL-TIME. |
| [Chapter I.] Tom’s “First Half” |
| [Chapter II.] The Christmas Holidays |
| [Chapter III.] The New Schoolfellow |
| [Chapter IV.] “The Young Idea” |
| [Chapter V.] Maggie’s Second Visit |
| [Chapter VI.] A Love-Scene |
| [Chapter VII.] The Golden Gates Are Passed |
| [BOOK THIRD.] THE DOWNFALL. |
| [Chapter I.] What Had Happened at Home |
| [Chapter II.] Mrs Tulliver’s Teraphim, or Household Gods |
| [Chapter III.] The Family Council |
| [Chapter IV.] A Vanishing Gleam |
| [Chapter V.] Tom Applies His Knife to the Oyster |
| [Chapter VI.] Tending to Refute the Popular Prejudice against the Present of a Pocket-Knife |
| [Chapter VII.] How a Hen Takes to Stratagem |
| [Chapter VIII.] Daylight on the Wreck |
| [Chapter IX.] An Item Added to the Family Register |
| [BOOK FOURTH.] THE VALLEY OF HUMILIATION. |
| [Chapter I.] A Variation of Protestantism Unknown to Bossuet |
| [Chapter II.] The Torn Nest Is Pierced by the Thorns |
| [Chapter III.] A Voice from the Past |
| [BOOK FIFTH.] WHEAT AND TARES. |
| [Chapter I.] In the Red Deeps |
| [Chapter II.] Aunt Glegg Learns the Breadth of Bob’s Thumb |
| [Chapter III.] The Wavering Balance |
| [Chapter IV.] Another Love-Scene |
| [Chapter V.] The Cloven Tree |
| [Chapter VI.] The Hard-Won Triumph |
| [Chapter VII.] A Day of Reckoning |
| [BOOK SIXTH.] THE GREAT TEMPTATION. |
| [Chapter I.] A Duet in Paradise |
| [Chapter II.] First Impressions |
| [Chapter III.] Confidential Moments |
| [Chapter IV.] Brother and Sister |
| [Chapter V.] Showing That Tom Had Opened the Oyster |
| [Chapter VI.] Illustrating the Laws of Attraction |
| [Chapter VII.] Philip Re-enters |
| [Chapter VIII.] Wakem in a New Light |
| [Chapter IX.] Charity in Full-Dress |
| [Chapter X.] The Spell Seems Broken |
| [Chapter XI.] In the Lane |
| [Chapter XII.] A Family Party |
| [Chapter XIII.] Borne Along by the Tide |
| [Chapter XIV.] Waking |
| [BOOK SEVENTH.] THE FINAL RESCUE. |
| [Chapter I.] The Return to the Mill |
| [Chapter II.] St Ogg’s Passes Judgment |
| [Chapter III.] Showing That Old Acquaintances Are Capable of Surprising Us |
| [Chapter IV.] Maggie and Lucy |
| [Chapter V.] The Last Conflict |
BOOK FIRST
BOY AND GIRL.
Chapter I.
Outside Dorlcote Mill
A wide plain, where the broadening Floss hurries on between its green banks to the sea, and the loving tide, rushing to meet it, checks its passage with an impetuous embrace. On this mighty tide the black ships—laden with the fresh-scented fir-planks, with rounded sacks of oil-bearing seed, or with the dark glitter of coal—are borne along to the town of St Ogg’s, which shows its aged, fluted red roofs and the broad gables of its wharves between the low wooded hill and the river-brink, tingeing the water with a soft purple hue under the transient glance of this February sun. Far away on each hand stretch the rich pastures, and the patches of dark earth made ready for the seed of broad-leaved green crops, or touched already with the tint of the tender-bladed autumn-sown corn. There is a remnant still of last year’s golden clusters of beehive-ricks rising at intervals beyond the hedgerows; and everywhere the hedgerows are studded with trees; the distant ships seem to be lifting their masts and stretching their red-brown sails close among the branches of the spreading ash. Just by the red-roofed town the tributary Ripple flows with a lively current into the Floss. How lovely the little river is, with its dark changing wavelets! It seems to me like a living companion while I wander along the bank, and listen to its low, placid voice, as to the voice of one who is deaf and loving. I remember those large dipping willows. I remember the stone bridge.
And this is Dorlcote Mill. I must stand a minute or two here on the bridge and look at it, though the clouds are threatening, and it is far on in the afternoon. Even in this leafless time of departing February it is pleasant to look at,—perhaps the chill, damp season adds a charm to the trimly kept, comfortable dwelling-house, as old as the elms and chestnuts that shelter it from the northern blast. The stream is brimful now, and lies high in this little withy plantation, and half drowns the grassy fringe of the croft in front of the house. As I look at the full stream, the vivid grass, the delicate bright-green powder softening the outline of the great trunks and branches that gleam from under the bare purple boughs, I am in love with moistness, and envy the white ducks that are dipping their heads far into the water here among the withes, unmindful of the awkward appearance they make in the drier world above.