The Mill on the Floss

Maggie Tulliver is a dark-haired, clever, passionate girl growing up at Dorlcote Mill on the river Floss, adoring her stern brother Tom, who never approves of her. When their father loses the mill in a lawsuit, the family falls into poverty, and Maggie, torn between loyalty to her family and her own heart, is drawn first to the crippled son of her father's enemy and later to her cousin's charming suitor.

Published in 1860, it is George Eliot's most autobiographical novel: like Maggie, she was a gifted girl whose beloved brother cut her off when she broke with convention. Its picture of childhood is one of the finest in English, and its ending is famous. Read Middlemarch for Eliot's broadest canvas.