The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot
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The Mill on the Floss
A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation

Author: George Eliot

Narrator: Anna Maxwell Martin, Full Cast, Jack Farthing, Joanna Vanderham

Unabridged: 2 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/21/2020

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

George Eliot’s classic Victorian epic about a brother and sister pitted against one another in love and life, starring Anna Maxwell Martin

Based on George Eliot’s own rural upbringing and relationship with her estranged brother, The Mill on the Floss is a powerful, dynamic tale of familial rejection, sibling rivalry and what happens when the head confronts the heart.

Growing up at Dorlcote Mill in the beautiful English countryside, young Maggie yearns for approval and affection. With her dark, striking looks and quick intelligence she is the misfit of the Tulliver family, and while her father dotes on her, her mother despairs of her rebelliousness. But it is the love of her stolid, dutiful brother Tom that Maggie craves most, and despite their opposing natures, the two forge a close bond.

But as adults, their paths diverge. Following their father’s bankruptcy, Tom leaves school and enters the world of business, determined to repay the family’s debts and regain their home.Maggie, meanwhile, is drawn to two very different men: kindred spirit Philip Wakem, the son of her father's enemy, and the charming, seductive Stephen Guest, already promised to her cousin, Lucy.

As she struggles to reconcile passion and loyalty, the choices Maggie makes will set her against her beloved brother – with tragic consequences...

This stunning adaption is full of humour and high drama, and features a rich, filmic soundscape.

Also included is bonus programme Free Thinking: George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss, hosted by Shahidha Bari, in which writer Rebecca Mead, actor Fiona Shaw and academics Dafydd Mills Daniel, Philip Davis and Peggy Reynolds discuss the background to Eliot’s much-loved 1860 novel and read selected extracts.

Cast
George Eliot, the Narrator ….. Anna Maxwell Martin
Young Maggie ….. Amy-Jayne Leigh
Young Tom ….. Oliver Zetterstrom
Young Lucy ….. Grace Doherty
Mr Tulliver ….. Roger Ringrose
Mrs Tulliver ….. Alison Belbin
Maggie ….. Joanna Vanderham
Tom ….. Will Kirk
Lucy ….. Ell Potter
Philip ….. Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Stephen ….. Jack Farthing
Mrs Moss ….. Heather Craney
Mr Wakem ….. John Dougall
Mrs Glegg ….. Elizabeth Counsell
Mr Stelling ….. John Lightbody
Dr Kenn ….. Hasan Dixon
Luke/Bob ….. Kurtis Lowe
Keiza/Sally ….. Bettrys Jones

Written by George Eliot
Adapted by Rhiannon Tise
Produced and directed by Tracey Neale
Studio Managers: Keith Graham, Mike Etherden, Jenni Burnett & Alison Craig
Production Co-Ordinator: Anne Isger
First broadcast BBC Radio 4, 6-17 April 2020

Free Thinking: George Eliot’s Mill on the Floss
Presented by Shahidha Bari
With Rebecca Mead, Fiona Shaw, Dafydd Mills Daniel, Philip Davis and Peggy Reynolds
Produced by Fiona McLean

About George Eliot

George Eliot is the masculine pen name of Mary Ann Evans (1819–1880), one of Victorian England's leading novelists. Her first stories appeared in Blackwood's magazine, followed by such novels as The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, and Middlemarch. Her work was popular with critics and the public alike, and in later years her novels were especially valued for their detailed portrayals of rural English life.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Captain Sir Roddy, R.N. (Ret.) on June 14, 2024

Upon completion of the The Mill on the Floss, I realized that I had just finished something monumental—a staggeringly amazing literary achievement. This novel, written by ‘George Eliot’ (Mary Anne, or Marian Evans), and first published by Blackwood and Sons in 1860, could have just as easily been ti......more

Goodreads review by Henry on July 23, 2025

This could be retitled the Ecstasy and the Agony for what follows in George Eliot's ( Mary Ann Evans) superb novel, not surprisingly since I've read others of her excellent books. An ordinary setting just before the Victorian age of late 1820s England, in a small fictional rural port town St. Ogg's......more

Goodreads review by Nikola on June 14, 2023

Myślałam, że będą 3 gwiazdki, ale omg ja lubię takie zakończenia.......more

Goodreads review by Cindy on October 01, 2025

There is no new thing under the sun. This novel proves that old books carry depths we desperately need. If you don’t want to know the truth that the road goes uphill all the way, avoid reading this. But if you want honesty about choices and suffering, this is the book. Cathartic.......more

Goodreads review by Jsiva on August 26, 2025

To think that I might have left this book as dnf after not even getting past the first 2 pages.........more