The Mill on the Floss by Eliot, George - 1860

Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1860 First edition, original publisher's cloth with gilt spines, covers stamped in blind, pale yellow endpapers, half titles present in each volume, 16pp publisher's catalogue at rear of volume III, Carter's first state lacking the advertisement leaf at the end of volume I. Some wear and fraying to spine ends and corners, hinges cracked and secure, 19th and 20th century former owner inscriptions to the front endpapers of each volume, some spotting and soiling to pages. Overall, a good set free of any repairs or restoration. House in a custom folding cloth box. The Mill on the Floss is the second full-length published novel by Mary Anne Evans, a top writer of the Victorian Era who chose to write under a male pseudonym so that her works would be taken more seriously. In addition to writing novels, she edited and contributed to the left-wing journal The Westminster Review as one of the only female editors of her time. Her novels were praised for being socially and politically conscious and realistic depictions of country life. The Mill on the Floss tells the story of siblings Maggie and Tom Tulliver over the course of at least a decade at Dorlcote Mill on the River Floss in Lincolnshire, England. While the town and family are fictional, Tom and Maggie's relationship is largely based on the author's relationship with her brother Isaac Evans, who fractured his relationship with his sister after finding out she had moved in with her married lover George Henry Lewes. The most autobiographical of her novels, The Mill on the Floss provides an alternate version of the author's life; while Maggie and Tom Tulliver perish in a watery embrace, Mary Anne and Isaac Evans never reconciled.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine.