The Mill on the Floss

George Eliot

The Mill on the Floss essentially narrates the history of a tragic relationship between Maggie Tulliver and her brother, Tom, whose childhood closeness is progressively fractured by the pressures and demands of life. These pressures and demands are thrust to the fore with the loss of their father's mill to his rival, the lawyer Wakem, and the fall of the Tullivers from social respectability.