Florence River Mill

Author: George Eliot Sun Falin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-04-01
Features: The Mill on the Floss primarily depicts the youth of Maggie and her brother Tom. Due to the failure of the river water lawsuit, their family property was auctioned off, forcing the siblings to drop out of school. To settle the debts, Tom and his father had to work hard. On the very day the debts were cleared, Tom's father whipped the lawyer who had caused his defeat, and died of excessive excitement. The family had to leave the mill estate. Soon after, Maggie secretly associated with the hunchbacked son of the lawyer who was an enemy of her father, and fell in love with him. Several years later, a wealthy young man named Stephen fell in love with Maggie. They played upstream on the Floss River and missed the boat. Stephen planned to elope with her, but she refused. However, their elopement caused a great stir. Suddenly, a rare flood occurred, and Maggie risked her life to reach the mill to save Tom. The siblings reconciled amidst the turbulent waves but were drowned by the flood. Their tombstones read, "Embracing in Death."