The Mill on the Floss is George Eliot’s most autobiographical novel, and the first she published after her identity as a woman was revealed. A ‘dreamscape’ version of her Warwickshire childhood, the book is both a working-through and a reimagining of her life.

Ruth Yeazell and Deborah Friedell join Tom to discuss the novel and its protagonist Maggie Tullliver, for whom duty – societal, familial, self-imposed – continually conflicts with her personal desires. They explore the book’s submerged sexuality, its questioning of conventional gender roles, and the way Eliot’s satirical impulse is counterbalanced by the complexity of her characters.

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Further reading in the LRB:

Rachel Bowlby on reading George Eliot:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n07/rachel-bowlby/waiting-for-the-dawn-to-come⁠

Dinah Birch on Eliot’s journals:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n10/dinah-birch/no-wonder-it-ached⁠

Rosemary Ashton on Eliot and sex:

⁠https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v05/n03/rosemary-ashton/two-velvet-peaches⁠

Gordon Haight’s speech on Eliot at Westminster Abbey:

⁠http://lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v02/n14/gordon-haight/gordon-haight-s-speech-in-westminster-abbey-on-21-june-when-a-memorial-stone-to-george-eliot-was-unveiled⁠

Next episode: ‘Our Mutual Friend’ by Charles Dickens.