The Mill on the Floss was George Eliot’s third book, after Scenes of Clerical Life (1858) and Adam Bede (1859). She began writing the novel in 1859 and it was first published in 1860, with a few subsequent revised editions. The novel was eagerly anticipated, as Adam Bede had been very successful, and it ended up being well-received for the most part. It was not as uniformly praised as Adam Bede had been upon publication, but it was also a more ambitious work. Many critics vastly preferred the first half of The Mill on the Floss, which focuses on Maggie and Tom Tulliver’s childhoods, to the second half - and especially the ending.
The Mill on the Floss is Eliot’s most autobiographical...
