The Mill on the Floss

The Mill on the Floss
Title page of the first edition, 1860
AuthorGeorge Eliot
LanguageEnglish
GenreNovel
Psychological fiction
Domestic fiction
Set inLincolnshire, c. 1829–1840
PublisherWilliam Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London
Publication date
4 April 1860
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback): octavo
Pages993, in three volumes
823.8
LC ClassPR4664 .A1 1979
Preceded byAdam Bede 
Followed bySilas Marner 
TextThe Mill on the Floss at Wikisource

The Mill on the Floss is a novel by English author George Eliot, first published in three volumes on 4 April 1860 by William Blackwood and Sons. The first American edition was published by Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York.

Plaque in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, noting it as the model for St Ogg's: "one of those old, old towns which impress one as a continuation and outgrowth of nature, as much as the nests of the bower-birds or the winding galleries of the white ants; a town which carries the traces of its long growth and history like a millennial tree, and has sprung up and developed in the same spot between the river and the low hill from the time when the Roman legions turned their backs on it from the camp on the hillside, and the long-haired sea-kings came up the river and looked with fierce, eager eyes at the fatness of the land."

Spanning a period of 10 to 15 years, the novel details the lives of Tom and Maggie Tulliver, siblings who grow up at Dorlcote Mill on the River Floss. The mill is at the confluence of the Floss and the smaller River Ripple, near the village of St Ogg's in Lincolnshire, England. Both the rivers and the village are fictional.[1]

  1. ^ Henry, Nancy (7 May 2012). The Life of George Eliot: A Critical Biography. Wiley Blackwell Critical Biographies. John Wiley & Sons (published 2012). p. 26. ISBN 9781405137058. Retrieved 28 January 2016. The image of coal-laden ships floating into port that opens The Mill on the Floss seems to be informed by a memory of coal barges on the canal from Mary Ann's childhood and transferred to her fictional River Floss[...].