1
00:00:02,700 --> 00:00:05,780
See how the tide is carrying us out,

2
00:00:05,780 --> 00:00:08,260
away from all those unnatural
bonds

3
00:00:08,260 --> 00:00:13,500
that we've been trying to make
fast around us and trying in vain.

4
00:00:13,500 --> 00:00:16,300
It will carry us on,
never pause a moment

5
00:00:16,300 --> 00:00:22,260
till we are bound to each other
so that only death can part us.

6
00:00:25,580 --> 00:00:29,020
There are moments in a life
when everything changes.

7
00:00:29,020 --> 00:00:31,900
For Maggie Tulliver, the young
heroine of this book,

8
00:00:31,900 --> 00:00:34,500
The Mill On The Floss,
one such moment occurs

9
00:00:34,500 --> 00:00:38,100
when she elopes on a boat with a man
she's hopelessly attracted to.

10
00:00:39,500 --> 00:00:43,740
Once back on dry land, Maggie's life
will never be the same again.

11
00:00:46,620 --> 00:00:50,300
I first read The Mill On The Floss
in my early 20s.

12
00:00:50,300 --> 00:00:52,100
From the opening pages,

13
00:00:52,100 --> 00:00:55,140
I was swept away in this classic
coming-of-age tale.

14
00:00:56,300 --> 00:00:59,860
The heroine is caught
up in confusing moral crosscurrents

15
00:00:59,860 --> 00:01:02,660
and ultimately ends up
a fallen woman.

16
00:01:05,540 --> 00:01:07,300
At the time of its writing,

17
00:01:07,300 --> 00:01:10,580
the book's author was also a social
outcast,

18
00:01:10,580 --> 00:01:14,460
shunned by Victorian society for her
scandalous relationship

19
00:01:14,460 --> 00:01:15,660
with a married man.

20
00:01:16,700 --> 00:01:18,140
Partly because of this,

21
00:01:18,140 --> 00:01:20,860
the writer, Mary Ann Evans,
chose to publish

22
00:01:20,860 --> 00:01:23,380
under a male pseudonym, George Eliot.

23
00:01:27,020 --> 00:01:31,260
The Mill On The Floss was her
most autobiographical novel,

24
00:01:31,260 --> 00:01:33,780
but it's also
a kind of anti-biography.

25
00:01:34,980 --> 00:01:39,060
The kind of life that Maggie Tulliver
leads is one that Eliot herself might

26
00:01:39,060 --> 00:01:44,580
have led had she not left her
provincial home to become a London
writer.

27
00:01:44,580 --> 00:01:48,820
For me, this book is Eliot's
masterpiece, a complex, funny,

28
00:01:48,820 --> 00:01:52,100
all too human story of conflicting
emotions,

29
00:01:52,100 --> 00:01:55,860
of childhood and early adulthood,
and its thwarted desires.

30
00:01:55,860 --> 00:01:59,380
And 155 years after publication,

31
00:01:59,380 --> 00:02:02,540
the book still has the capacity to
shock, especially with

32
00:02:02,540 --> 00:02:04,700
the tragic denouement, which,

33
00:02:04,700 --> 00:02:07,540
whenever I read it,
I am reduced to tears.

34
00:02:24,540 --> 00:02:27,220
"And this is Dorlcote Mill.

35
00:02:27,220 --> 00:02:31,660
"I must stand a minute or two
here on the bridge and look at it.

36
00:02:33,260 --> 00:02:37,260
"The unresting wheel, sending
out its diamond jets of water.

37
00:02:38,780 --> 00:02:41,380
"That little girl is watching it,
too.

38
00:02:41,380 --> 00:02:43,820
"She has been standing on just
the same spot

39
00:02:43,820 --> 00:02:47,540
"at the edge of the water, ever since
I paused on the bridge.

40
00:02:49,540 --> 00:02:52,100
"It is time the little play fellow
went in, I think."

41
00:02:57,260 --> 00:02:59,820
The book's main character,
Maggie Tulliver,

42
00:02:59,820 --> 00:03:02,940
is just a little girl
when the story begins.

43
00:03:02,940 --> 00:03:04,740
She lives in the local mill,

44
00:03:04,740 --> 00:03:09,260
next to the River Floss with her
mother, father and older brother Tom,

45
00:03:09,260 --> 00:03:11,620
on the edge of the fictional
town of St Ogg's.

46
00:03:13,140 --> 00:03:16,580
Maggie has a head of
wild black hair,

47
00:03:16,580 --> 00:03:19,380
dark skin and dark eyes to match.

48
00:03:19,380 --> 00:03:23,500
She's rebellious,
impulsive and fiercely intelligent.

49
00:03:23,500 --> 00:03:27,220
Indeed, her father says about her
that she is "too cute for a woman

50
00:03:27,220 --> 00:03:31,460
"but an overcute woman's no better
nor a longtailed sheep,

51
00:03:31,460 --> 00:03:33,820
"she'll fetch none the bigger
price for that."

52
00:03:36,340 --> 00:03:40,740
Here, Eliot, with her usual wit, is
satirising the limited social role

53
00:03:40,740 --> 00:03:43,300
of young women in the 1820s Britain.

54
00:03:44,420 --> 00:03:46,900
A different future awaits
Maggie's brother.

55
00:03:48,060 --> 00:03:50,660
Tom, by virtue of his privilege
of being a boy,

56
00:03:50,660 --> 00:03:53,900
is destined to play
a greater role in society

57
00:03:53,900 --> 00:03:56,940
and so his father sets great
store by his future.

58
00:03:56,940 --> 00:03:59,580
"I shall give him
an education and set him up

59
00:03:59,580 --> 00:04:02,860
"to a business as he might make
a nest for himself,"

60
00:04:02,860 --> 00:04:04,340
he declares proudly,

61
00:04:04,340 --> 00:04:09,140
before sending him off to a private
school at great personal expense.

62
00:04:10,620 --> 00:04:14,300
Although Tom is not the brightest
compared to his sister, needless

63
00:04:14,300 --> 00:04:18,700
to say, Maggie doesn't receive
the same educational opportunities.

64
00:04:18,700 --> 00:04:21,620
Her schooling ends at the age of 13.

65
00:04:23,100 --> 00:04:26,660
But the life of the author herself
followed a very different path.

66
00:04:29,500 --> 00:04:32,100
Eliot was born here on the Arbury
estate

67
00:04:32,100 --> 00:04:36,180
in rural Warwickshire on
22nd November 1819.

68
00:04:36,180 --> 00:04:40,260
She was christened Mary Ann Evans.

69
00:04:40,260 --> 00:04:44,700
Her father was the estate manager
but, unlike Mr Tulliver,

70
00:04:44,700 --> 00:04:49,380
he was determined that his daughter
receive a proper education.

71
00:04:49,380 --> 00:04:53,580
From the age of five, Evans attended
a number of local boarding schools.

72
00:04:54,900 --> 00:04:59,820
However, her formal education
ended at 16 when her mother died

73
00:04:59,820 --> 00:05:02,180
and she became her father's
housekeeper.

74
00:05:03,860 --> 00:05:07,020
Undeterred, the independent-minded
Mary Ann

75
00:05:07,020 --> 00:05:09,300
continued to read voraciously.

76
00:05:10,620 --> 00:05:13,500
She would come here to Arbury Hall,

77
00:05:13,500 --> 00:05:16,500
the grand house belonging to her
father's employers.

78
00:05:19,860 --> 00:05:21,220
Inside this library,

79
00:05:21,220 --> 00:05:26,900
she would eagerly devour books
on subjects as various as philosophy,

80
00:05:26,900 --> 00:05:30,460
religion, natural sciences, the arts,
novels -

81
00:05:30,460 --> 00:05:33,660
she particularly liked Sir Walter
Scott.

82
00:05:33,660 --> 00:05:37,940
The young Mary Ann Evans was
so insatiable for knowledge that

83
00:05:37,940 --> 00:05:42,180
later she taught herself Latin,
Greek, French, German, Spanish,

84
00:05:42,180 --> 00:05:46,060
Hebrew, and she would read books in
these various languages.

85
00:05:50,540 --> 00:05:53,700
Evans would give her young heroine
a similar hunger for learning.

86
00:05:56,180 --> 00:06:00,060
For Maggie Tulliver, books have an
almost totemic power to transport

87
00:06:00,060 --> 00:06:01,820
and thrill.

88
00:06:01,820 --> 00:06:05,700
And for Evans, her love of literature
was inextricably bound up

89
00:06:05,700 --> 00:06:09,420
with her desire to escape
a life of domestic tedium.

90
00:06:11,860 --> 00:06:16,780
In 1851, after the death of her
father, she made the bold step

91
00:06:16,780 --> 00:06:21,620
of moving to the capital, with its
vibrant literary scene.

92
00:06:23,380 --> 00:06:26,500
And it's in London, at
the British Library, where the

93
00:06:26,500 --> 00:06:29,900
only surviving manuscript of the Mill
on the Floss is held.

94
00:06:30,980 --> 00:06:35,260
And there is her handwriting, which
is unbelievable that one can see it.

95
00:06:35,260 --> 00:06:37,660
As you can see, it's incredibly neat

96
00:06:37,660 --> 00:06:39,300
and it's now in bound volumes,

97
00:06:39,300 --> 00:06:42,700
but at the time that Eliot was
writing it, these pages would

98
00:06:42,700 --> 00:06:45,660
have just been loose sheets,
it's been bound up since.

99
00:06:45,660 --> 00:06:49,060
The advantage of that was
she could rewrite sections,

100
00:06:49,060 --> 00:06:52,220
discard the original pages, bits
moved around, bits crossed out,

101
00:06:52,220 --> 00:06:53,780
you really do get a sense

102
00:06:53,780 --> 00:06:56,540
of her working on it, perhaps
struggling in places

103
00:06:56,540 --> 00:06:59,740
to try and bring it together in a
way she was happy with it.

104
00:06:59,740 --> 00:07:03,660
I can see a correction there, which
is exciting, cos you feel somebody
thinking.

105
00:07:03,660 --> 00:07:06,340
That's right. There are a few
examples in these chapters.

106
00:07:06,340 --> 00:07:08,340
Goodness, she has cut a bit there.

107
00:07:08,340 --> 00:07:11,780
That's right. This section she seems
to have cut out altogether.

108
00:07:11,780 --> 00:07:17,540
This is part of a scene where the
young Tom and Maggie are out to
play,

109
00:07:17,540 --> 00:07:20,580
they have a bit of an argument
and in this section,

110
00:07:20,580 --> 00:07:23,020
she sits there, having
a little reverie,

111
00:07:23,020 --> 00:07:25,300
thinking about how life would be so
much better

112
00:07:25,300 --> 00:07:29,700
if her brother Tom was to love her
even more than she loved him.

113
00:07:29,700 --> 00:07:32,700
Possibly Eliot decided this was too
much detail

114
00:07:32,700 --> 00:07:34,860
for this section, so she cut it out.

115
00:07:38,220 --> 00:07:41,780
Evans took enormous care
crafting the central relationship

116
00:07:41,780 --> 00:07:45,140
of the novel, that between Maggie and
her brother Tom.

117
00:07:46,340 --> 00:07:52,020
"I love Tom so dearly, better than
anybody else in the world.

118
00:07:52,020 --> 00:07:55,180
"When he grows up,
I shall keep his house

119
00:07:55,180 --> 00:07:58,140
"and we shall always live together.

120
00:07:58,140 --> 00:08:01,380
"I can tell him
everything he doesn't know."

121
00:08:01,380 --> 00:08:03,620
Their intense relationship is
fractured

122
00:08:03,620 --> 00:08:06,420
when Maggie forms a close
bond with Philip Wakem.

123
00:08:08,420 --> 00:08:12,740
Philip's father is a lawyer, closely
involved in a legal dispute

124
00:08:12,740 --> 00:08:16,380
that has led to Mr Tulliver's
bankruptcy and the loss of his mill.

125
00:08:17,420 --> 00:08:21,100
As a result, Maggie's family forbid
her from having anything to do

126
00:08:21,100 --> 00:08:24,700
with the son of their arch enemy.

127
00:08:24,700 --> 00:08:28,820
But she decides to defy them
and secretly meets Philip.

128
00:08:28,820 --> 00:08:32,860
These are the Red Deeps - a forest
near Evans' own birthplace.

129
00:08:35,100 --> 00:08:38,700
And it's here that she played out
Maggie's growing friendship

130
00:08:38,700 --> 00:08:39,660
with Philip.

131
00:08:41,260 --> 00:08:45,820
Like Maggie, young Philip was
a gentle and sensitive soul,

132
00:08:45,820 --> 00:08:48,060
who craved her affection.

133
00:08:48,060 --> 00:08:50,180
And on their secret walks together,

134
00:08:50,180 --> 00:08:55,620
they would discuss art and literature
and the troubles of their young lives

135
00:08:55,620 --> 00:08:59,540
and Philip eventually declares his
love for Maggie.

136
00:08:59,540 --> 00:09:01,860
And she doesn't quite reciprocate

137
00:09:01,860 --> 00:09:06,100
because she's always aware
of the feud between the two families.

138
00:09:06,100 --> 00:09:10,620
So though she is fond of Philip,
she doesn't quite commit to him.

139
00:09:14,660 --> 00:09:17,100
When Tom finds out about these
meetings,

140
00:09:17,100 --> 00:09:19,020
he is furious with his sister.

141
00:09:20,580 --> 00:09:22,380
"You are a disobedient,

142
00:09:22,380 --> 00:09:25,860
"deceitful daughter who throws away
her own respectability

143
00:09:25,860 --> 00:09:28,740
"by clandestine meetings with the son
of a man

144
00:09:28,740 --> 00:09:31,340
"who has helped to ruin her father."

145
00:09:33,380 --> 00:09:37,500
Tom forces Maggie to meet
Philip one last time,

146
00:09:37,500 --> 00:09:40,460
to tell him their friendship can
no longer continue.

147
00:09:42,060 --> 00:09:45,780
A disappointed and angry Philip
responds.

148
00:09:45,780 --> 00:09:48,780
"It is not right, Maggie.

149
00:09:48,780 --> 00:09:51,820
"I would give up a great
deal for my father,

150
00:09:51,820 --> 00:09:55,460
"but I would not give up an
attachment or a friendship

151
00:09:55,460 --> 00:09:58,100
"of any sort in obedience to any wish
of his

152
00:09:58,100 --> 00:10:00,580
"that I did not recognise as right."

153
00:10:01,940 --> 00:10:05,660
"I could not have my own will,"
responds a crestfallen Maggie.

154
00:10:07,460 --> 00:10:10,180
"Our life is determined for us."

155
00:10:13,180 --> 00:10:17,620
The idea of forbidden relationships
is central to the novel.

156
00:10:17,620 --> 00:10:21,540
But parallels to the story can be
found in the author's own life.

157
00:10:24,580 --> 00:10:27,180
Within a few years
of moving to London,

158
00:10:27,180 --> 00:10:32,380
Evans had fallen in love with
a man called George Henry Lewes.

159
00:10:33,660 --> 00:10:37,580
Both emotionally and intellectually,
it was a great meeting of minds.

160
00:10:37,580 --> 00:10:41,500
They fell in love during the spring
of 1853 and, shortly afterwards,

161
00:10:41,500 --> 00:10:43,860
they moved in together.

162
00:10:43,860 --> 00:10:45,900
There was just one small problem.

163
00:10:47,300 --> 00:10:49,620
Lewes was already married.

164
00:10:51,740 --> 00:10:55,820
Victorian society took an extremely
dim view of their relationship.

165
00:10:55,820 --> 00:10:57,860
But Evans was defiant.

166
00:10:57,860 --> 00:11:01,420
She had finally found
the physical and emotional affection

167
00:11:01,420 --> 00:11:03,060
she had long craved.

168
00:11:05,780 --> 00:11:07,420
Evans was socially shunned

169
00:11:07,420 --> 00:11:10,740
as a result of her relationship
with Lewes.

170
00:11:10,740 --> 00:11:13,620
But for her,
it was a price worth paying.

171
00:11:13,620 --> 00:11:16,980
Although Lewes couldn't,
or wouldn't, divorce his wife,

172
00:11:16,980 --> 00:11:19,980
he and Mary Ann behaved
like a married couple.

173
00:11:19,980 --> 00:11:22,020
She always referred to him
as her husband

174
00:11:22,020 --> 00:11:25,540
and believed she had found
not just a partner, but a soul mate.

175
00:11:27,380 --> 00:11:29,980
He came from quite
a rackety background.

176
00:11:29,980 --> 00:11:32,140
Very urban,
unlike her rural background.

177
00:11:32,140 --> 00:11:34,620
He's the illegitimate
son of a poet,

178
00:11:34,620 --> 00:11:37,140
grandson of a musical comedian.

179
00:11:37,140 --> 00:11:38,500
He's entirely self-taught

180
00:11:38,500 --> 00:11:41,140
and he has that kind of
extraordinary freshness of mind,

181
00:11:41,140 --> 00:11:43,900
because he's very, very good
on science, he's fascinated by

182
00:11:43,900 --> 00:11:49,540
the new kind of knowledge that's
coming out of geology, archaeology.

183
00:11:49,540 --> 00:11:53,020
I mean, he's the kind of Renaissance
Man! He's immensely attractive.

184
00:11:53,020 --> 00:11:55,460
But it was a scandalous relationship?

185
00:11:55,460 --> 00:11:58,180
Well, what was scandalous about it
was not the fact that a man

186
00:11:58,180 --> 00:12:00,940
and woman are having sex and
they're not married to each other,

187
00:12:00,940 --> 00:12:03,660
it's that they refused
to hide the fact,

188
00:12:03,660 --> 00:12:05,900
and it's that
that makes it scandalous.

189
00:12:05,900 --> 00:12:08,740
Later, when she took the name
George Eliot, why did she do that?

190
00:12:08,740 --> 00:12:11,300
She knew that, if she published
a novel under her own name,

191
00:12:11,300 --> 00:12:12,780
everybody would be looking to see

192
00:12:12,780 --> 00:12:15,460
whether it came from a sort of
tainted source, you know. Yeah.

193
00:12:15,460 --> 00:12:17,900
How does she handle problems
with sex and so forth?

194
00:12:17,900 --> 00:12:19,540
So she wanted a nom de plume,

195
00:12:19,540 --> 00:12:22,340
something to kind of stand
between her and what she imagined

196
00:12:22,340 --> 00:12:25,660
would be the sort of jabbering
tongues and the pointed fingers.

197
00:12:25,660 --> 00:12:27,420
And to choose a man's name also

198
00:12:27,420 --> 00:12:29,980
seems to kind of make it
more impersonal. Yeah.

199
00:12:29,980 --> 00:12:33,580
She's not going to be judged as
a woman, or as a scandalous woman.

200
00:12:35,820 --> 00:12:40,140
But Victorian society did judge
Eliot as a scandalous woman.

201
00:12:40,140 --> 00:12:43,700
And it would never accept
such an irregular relationship.

202
00:12:43,700 --> 00:12:47,540
And neither would her family,
especially her older brother Isaac.

203
00:12:49,180 --> 00:12:53,340
In a letter she wrote to him in 1857,
she finally revealed the secret

204
00:12:53,340 --> 00:12:55,940
she had been keeping
for the past four years.

205
00:12:57,500 --> 00:13:01,820
"I have find someone
to take care of me in the world.

206
00:13:01,820 --> 00:13:05,860
"My husband has been known to me
for several years

207
00:13:05,860 --> 00:13:09,140
"and I am well acquainted
with his mind and character."

208
00:13:11,300 --> 00:13:13,660
Isaac Evans was furious

209
00:13:13,660 --> 00:13:18,100
and his curt reply came
two weeks later via his solicitors.

210
00:13:18,100 --> 00:13:21,420
He could never accept
her so-called marriage

211
00:13:21,420 --> 00:13:25,140
and he ordered the rest of the family
never to speak to her again.

212
00:13:26,860 --> 00:13:30,540
Her social isolation
was now complete.

213
00:13:30,540 --> 00:13:33,060
Mary Ann's sister Chrissey
stopped writing

214
00:13:33,060 --> 00:13:37,220
and Isaac remained silent
for the next 23 years.

215
00:13:37,220 --> 00:13:40,540
She was devastated by his rejection.

216
00:13:40,540 --> 00:13:43,540
But she mined this bitter experience

217
00:13:43,540 --> 00:13:47,020
to inform the story
of The Mill On The Floss.

218
00:13:49,300 --> 00:13:52,780
" 'Well,' said Tom with cold scorn,

219
00:13:52,780 --> 00:13:55,460
" 'if your feelings are
so much better than mine,

220
00:13:55,460 --> 00:13:56,900
" 'let me see you show them

221
00:13:56,900 --> 00:14:01,140
" 'in some other way than by conduct
that's likely to disgrace us all!

222
00:14:01,140 --> 00:14:04,020
" 'I have a different way
of showing my affection!'

223
00:14:04,020 --> 00:14:05,900
" 'Because you are a man, Tom,

224
00:14:05,900 --> 00:14:09,620
" 'and have power and can
do something in the world.' "

225
00:14:15,980 --> 00:14:20,580
George Eliot,
a woman who had assumed a man's name,

226
00:14:20,580 --> 00:14:24,060
was determined
to do something in the world.

227
00:14:24,060 --> 00:14:26,620
And that something was to write.

228
00:14:26,620 --> 00:14:29,820
She had a clear idea
of her purpose as a novelist,

229
00:14:29,820 --> 00:14:32,500
but had little regard
for the kind of fiction

230
00:14:32,500 --> 00:14:35,580
that most female writers
were producing at the time.

231
00:14:35,580 --> 00:14:41,060
In her 1856 essay, entitled
Silly Novels By Lady Novelists,

232
00:14:41,060 --> 00:14:43,820
Eliot railed against the predominant
form of women's fiction,

233
00:14:43,820 --> 00:14:47,580
which dealt mainly with the love
lives of the upper classes.

234
00:14:47,580 --> 00:14:51,780
She found these stories
frothy, pious and pedantic.

235
00:14:51,780 --> 00:14:55,300
The Mill On The Floss
would be none of these things.

236
00:14:56,780 --> 00:15:00,820
Eliot wrote much of the novel in this
house in Wimbledon, South London,

237
00:15:00,820 --> 00:15:03,860
where she and Lewes moved
in March 1859.

238
00:15:05,980 --> 00:15:08,860
But it was not a happy time
for her here emotionally.

239
00:15:08,860 --> 00:15:12,020
Only three days after moving in,
she received a distressing letter

240
00:15:12,020 --> 00:15:16,660
from her sister Chrissey, telling her
that she was dying of consumption.

241
00:15:16,660 --> 00:15:18,900
Forbidden by her brother
to meet her sister,

242
00:15:18,900 --> 00:15:23,340
even in these desperate
circumstances, she was devastated.

243
00:15:27,700 --> 00:15:29,860
Chrissey died on the 15th of March.

244
00:15:33,580 --> 00:15:37,420
Eliot immediately stopped working
on the book and wrote to a friend.

245
00:15:38,780 --> 00:15:41,820
"I have been crying myself
almost into a stupor

246
00:15:41,820 --> 00:15:43,340
"over visions of sorrow."

247
00:15:53,260 --> 00:15:56,860
After spending just over a year
writing The Mill On The Floss,

248
00:15:56,860 --> 00:16:01,500
it was finally published in three
volumes in the spring of 1860.

249
00:16:03,340 --> 00:16:05,460
It was an instant success.

250
00:16:05,460 --> 00:16:09,220
In just a few weeks,
it sold over 5,000 copies.

251
00:16:10,460 --> 00:16:14,740
However, despite the healthy sales,
not all the reviews were positive.

252
00:16:16,420 --> 00:16:19,020
The Guardian found
the last section problematic

253
00:16:19,020 --> 00:16:22,140
and at odds with the rest of the book
and, it's true,

254
00:16:22,140 --> 00:16:25,580
it's something which has continued
to puzzle many readers to this day.

255
00:16:25,580 --> 00:16:29,180
The critic wrote, "There is
a clear dislocation in the story

256
00:16:29,180 --> 00:16:32,420
"between Maggie's girlhood
and her great temptation."

257
00:16:34,380 --> 00:16:37,420
Maggie's great temptation
comes in the character

258
00:16:37,420 --> 00:16:41,420
of 25-year-old Stephen Guest,
the dashing young son

259
00:16:41,420 --> 00:16:44,380
of one of St Ogg's
richest merchant families.

260
00:16:45,900 --> 00:16:49,300
Although Maggie is
strongly attracted to Guest,

261
00:16:49,300 --> 00:16:52,540
once again,
this is a forbidden relationship.

262
00:16:52,540 --> 00:16:55,180
He is already engaged
to Maggie's cousin Lucy,

263
00:16:55,180 --> 00:16:56,780
but this doesn't deter him

264
00:16:56,780 --> 00:16:59,500
from declaring his passionate
feelings for Maggie.

265
00:16:59,500 --> 00:17:02,300
" 'I am mad with love for you!"

266
00:17:02,300 --> 00:17:04,580
" 'If you do love me dearest,'
he said,

267
00:17:04,580 --> 00:17:09,180
" 'it is better, it is right
that we should marry each other.' "

268
00:17:09,180 --> 00:17:12,780
Maggie is torn between
loyalty to Lucy, her family

269
00:17:12,780 --> 00:17:15,220
and her intense desires.

270
00:17:15,220 --> 00:17:17,220
" 'Oh, it is difficult!

271
00:17:18,740 --> 00:17:20,140
" 'Life is very difficult!

272
00:17:21,420 --> 00:17:24,220
" 'Many things are dark to me.

273
00:17:24,220 --> 00:17:28,580
" 'But I see one thing quite clearly,
that I must not,

274
00:17:28,580 --> 00:17:33,940
" 'cannot seek my own happiness
by sacrificing others.'

275
00:17:33,940 --> 00:17:36,780
" 'Love is natural!

276
00:17:36,780 --> 00:17:41,180
" 'But surely pity and faithfulness
and memory are natural too!'

277
00:17:43,180 --> 00:17:45,140
" 'Our love would be poisoned!' "

278
00:17:49,740 --> 00:17:53,860
Stephen Guest tries one last time
to lure Maggie into his arms.

279
00:17:56,300 --> 00:17:59,540
Having drifted out to sea
on an ill-fated boat trip,

280
00:17:59,540 --> 00:18:02,900
they find themselves having
to spend the night out on deck.

281
00:18:05,460 --> 00:18:09,500
Although they don't sleep together,
it looks like an elopement

282
00:18:09,500 --> 00:18:12,140
and their relationship is
no longer secret.

283
00:18:14,020 --> 00:18:18,700
Now, in this instant,
Maggie's life had changed utterly.

284
00:18:18,700 --> 00:18:20,340
She's doomed.

285
00:18:20,340 --> 00:18:24,140
Despite having never consummated
her relationship with Guest,

286
00:18:24,140 --> 00:18:26,540
she was now a social pariah.

287
00:18:29,300 --> 00:18:32,260
It's little wonder that
Maggie's great temptation

288
00:18:32,260 --> 00:18:35,580
has left many critics
and readers confused.

289
00:18:35,580 --> 00:18:39,780
Her motives seem irrational
and opaque, even to herself.

290
00:18:41,500 --> 00:18:45,820
" 'I would rather have died
than fall into this temptation.

291
00:18:47,060 --> 00:18:50,940
" 'It would've been better
if we had parted forever then.

292
00:18:50,940 --> 00:18:53,260
" 'But we must part now.'

293
00:18:53,260 --> 00:18:56,540
"Her heart beat like
the heart of a frightened bird.

294
00:18:57,780 --> 00:19:00,580
" 'Remember what
we both felt weeks ago?

295
00:19:00,580 --> 00:19:02,740
" 'That we owed ourselves
to others?' "

296
00:19:03,740 --> 00:19:05,780
She goes on to say...

297
00:19:05,780 --> 00:19:08,220
" 'The wrong remains the same.' "

298
00:19:10,260 --> 00:19:13,300
This was new territory
for English fiction.

299
00:19:13,300 --> 00:19:16,740
Eliot, a female writer,
was exploring the bewildering

300
00:19:16,740 --> 00:19:21,060
and often self-destructive
forces of human sexuality.

301
00:19:21,060 --> 00:19:23,300
And in exploring these ideas,

302
00:19:23,300 --> 00:19:27,580
she was heavily influenced
by a German author she much admired -

303
00:19:27,580 --> 00:19:29,940
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

304
00:19:32,820 --> 00:19:35,860
The novel that particularly
inspired George Eliot

305
00:19:35,860 --> 00:19:38,060
when she was writing
Mill On The Floss,

306
00:19:38,060 --> 00:19:40,620
of course, is his novel from 1809,

307
00:19:40,620 --> 00:19:43,540
Die Wahlverwandtschaften -
Elective Affinities.

308
00:19:43,540 --> 00:19:47,060
Goethe uses the chemical idea
that certain elements will be

309
00:19:47,060 --> 00:19:50,580
naturally attracted to others
and will combine

310
00:19:50,580 --> 00:19:52,580
to form new elements
and so, of course,

311
00:19:52,580 --> 00:19:54,540
it's a kind of sexual story, really.

312
00:19:54,540 --> 00:19:59,500
So do you feel that influenced
her ability to write about Maggie,

313
00:19:59,500 --> 00:20:01,780
who's attempting
to be virtuous but, in fact,

314
00:20:01,780 --> 00:20:03,740
falls in love
with Stephen Guest? Yes.

315
00:20:03,740 --> 00:20:06,940
Which is a sort of...
an elective affinity. It is, it is.

316
00:20:06,940 --> 00:20:09,980
She entitles a chapter
Illustrating The Laws Of Attraction,

317
00:20:09,980 --> 00:20:12,940
so she quite clearly has got
Goethe in mind there.

318
00:20:12,940 --> 00:20:17,660
Um, and also, they float down the
river together and the big episode

319
00:20:17,660 --> 00:20:21,180
in the Wahlverwandtschaften
also takes place in a boat. Ah.

320
00:20:21,180 --> 00:20:22,900
So she took a lot of the plot
from Goethe?

321
00:20:22,900 --> 00:20:25,660
She did take quite a lot of the plot
from Goethe, but she also took

322
00:20:25,660 --> 00:20:29,500
a kind of open-handed, open-minded
view of sexual relations.

323
00:20:29,500 --> 00:20:34,540
She admired
Goethe's lack of moralising...

324
00:20:34,540 --> 00:20:38,940
Hmm. ..and his love
of generosity, as a writer,

325
00:20:38,940 --> 00:20:42,860
towards what she calls
mixed and erring humanity,

326
00:20:42,860 --> 00:20:46,100
er, people who make mistakes
and yet can be forgiven.

327
00:20:46,100 --> 00:20:49,980
And she gets as near, I think,
to any writer in the 19th century

328
00:20:49,980 --> 00:20:53,220
in England to being open
about sexual attraction,

329
00:20:53,220 --> 00:20:55,180
and that's what she is
in this novel.

330
00:20:56,500 --> 00:20:58,900
In her own life,
Eliot knew all too well

331
00:20:58,900 --> 00:21:02,500
the consequences of chemical
attraction and sexual desires.

332
00:21:04,100 --> 00:21:08,500
Her relationship with George
Henry Lewes came at a high price.

333
00:21:08,500 --> 00:21:12,420
Being estranged from her brother
was always her greatest regret.

334
00:21:13,980 --> 00:21:16,380
And this was a theme
that she would return to

335
00:21:16,380 --> 00:21:18,300
in the book's cataclysmic ending.

336
00:21:20,220 --> 00:21:25,460
At just 19 years of age,
Maggie was already a fallen woman.

337
00:21:25,460 --> 00:21:29,260
With no-one else to turn to,
and in complete desperation,

338
00:21:29,260 --> 00:21:31,580
she heads back to the old mill

339
00:21:31,580 --> 00:21:34,780
and she begs her brother Tom
for sanctuary.

340
00:21:34,780 --> 00:21:36,020
But he rejects her.

341
00:21:37,340 --> 00:21:40,060
" 'You will find no home with me!

342
00:21:40,060 --> 00:21:43,940
" 'You've disgraced my father's name!
You've been base, deceitful!

343
00:21:43,940 --> 00:21:46,740
" 'No motives are strong enough
to restrain you!

344
00:21:46,740 --> 00:21:49,420
" 'I wash my hands of you for ever!

345
00:21:49,420 --> 00:21:51,540
" 'You don't belong to me!' "

346
00:21:53,740 --> 00:21:58,540
For over two decades, George Eliot
had no contact with her brother.

347
00:21:58,540 --> 00:22:00,540
And it was during this time that

348
00:22:00,540 --> 00:22:04,540
she became the most successful
novelist of her generation,

349
00:22:04,540 --> 00:22:08,780
gaining immense wealth
and eventually social acceptance.

350
00:22:08,780 --> 00:22:11,660
Even Queen Victoria was a fan.

351
00:22:11,660 --> 00:22:16,340
But in 1878, her soul mate,
George Henry Lewes, died.

352
00:22:16,340 --> 00:22:18,620
THUNDER RUMBLES

353
00:22:18,620 --> 00:22:22,540
Eliot was distraught
and went into a period of mourning.

354
00:22:25,020 --> 00:22:28,100
Her brother Isaac
still remained silent.

355
00:22:29,780 --> 00:22:34,180
Eliot's long-wished-for
resolution of this painful rift

356
00:22:34,180 --> 00:22:37,980
would be something that only played
out in the pages of her fiction.

357
00:22:40,260 --> 00:22:44,140
At the end of the book, Maggie is
caught up in a violent storm.

358
00:22:45,540 --> 00:22:48,420
The waters of the Floss
rise dangerously

359
00:22:48,420 --> 00:22:52,860
and the river that once powered the
mill now threatens to sweep it away.

360
00:22:56,060 --> 00:22:59,180
Maggie desperately tries
to seek out her family.

361
00:22:59,180 --> 00:23:02,620
She arrives at the flooded
Dorlcote Mill in a small rowing boat

362
00:23:02,620 --> 00:23:05,380
and Tom scrambles in beside her.

363
00:23:05,380 --> 00:23:08,580
Brother and sister are
finally reunited,

364
00:23:08,580 --> 00:23:11,180
but the flood waters are
rising around them.

365
00:23:14,300 --> 00:23:18,660
"Tom, looking before him,
saw death rushing on them.

366
00:23:18,660 --> 00:23:22,980
" 'It is coming, Maggie,'
he said in a deep, hoarse voice,

367
00:23:22,980 --> 00:23:25,300
"loosing the oars and clasping her."

368
00:23:28,260 --> 00:23:31,900
'Eliot's emotional investment
in the story's ending

369
00:23:31,900 --> 00:23:35,380
'can be seen in the handwritten
pages of her manuscript.'

370
00:23:35,380 --> 00:23:38,460
You can see how the writing changed.

371
00:23:38,460 --> 00:23:43,060
It really is quite different
from the first volumes. Hmm.

372
00:23:43,060 --> 00:23:45,300
Yes, it...
it does look more emotional.

373
00:23:45,300 --> 00:23:47,500
You could see it's more slanted.
That's right.

374
00:23:47,500 --> 00:23:50,740
The very last few pages
and you can really see that.

375
00:23:50,740 --> 00:23:54,020
Oh, yes! My gosh!
This is the very last section.

376
00:23:54,020 --> 00:23:57,940
I mean, I did read that she suffered
a lot at the end of the book.

377
00:23:57,940 --> 00:24:00,940
She found it very hard to write,
because, of course, she was

378
00:24:00,940 --> 00:24:06,620
writing her invented resolution
of her love for her brother,

379
00:24:06,620 --> 00:24:09,300
which, in real life,
was not being played out

380
00:24:09,300 --> 00:24:11,500
in the same way at all. Absolutely.

381
00:24:11,500 --> 00:24:16,540
Maggie and Tom are almost
about to go down in the boat.

382
00:24:16,540 --> 00:24:20,100
"Clinging together in
fatal fellowship." Oh, gosh!

383
00:24:20,100 --> 00:24:23,860
And much bigger spacing
between each line and, I mean,

384
00:24:23,860 --> 00:24:28,020
one of her servants did say that she
was red-eyed in the morning whilst

385
00:24:28,020 --> 00:24:32,220
she was writing this, but certainly,
you can see great passion in it.

386
00:24:37,660 --> 00:24:42,620
"The next instant,
the boat was not seen on the water.

387
00:24:42,620 --> 00:24:48,740
"Brother and sister had gone down
in an embrace never to be parted,

388
00:24:48,740 --> 00:24:51,900
"living through again
in one supreme moment

389
00:24:51,900 --> 00:24:55,740
"the days when they had clasped
their little hands in love

390
00:24:55,740 --> 00:24:58,140
"and roamed the daisyed fields
together.

391
00:25:00,580 --> 00:25:03,540
"In their death,
they were not divided."

392
00:25:09,380 --> 00:25:11,740
It's a deeply moving ending.

393
00:25:11,740 --> 00:25:15,300
This brother and sister, who have
so often been at loggerheads,

394
00:25:15,300 --> 00:25:18,500
are finally reunited,
but only in death.

395
00:25:20,140 --> 00:25:25,420
You get the feeling it's a sort of
wish fulfilment on Eliot's part.

396
00:25:25,420 --> 00:25:29,060
She had achieved so much that her
heroine Maggie Tulliver could not -

397
00:25:29,060 --> 00:25:32,260
intellectual fulfilment
and romantic love -

398
00:25:32,260 --> 00:25:34,620
but on the other side,

399
00:25:34,620 --> 00:25:38,300
there was one part of her life
that remained an open wound.

400
00:25:39,740 --> 00:25:45,100
Eliot's inability to befriend
her brother during her life

401
00:25:45,100 --> 00:25:48,980
was a private sorrow
that she was able to mine

402
00:25:48,980 --> 00:25:53,540
and weave into, er, a piece of art.

403
00:26:01,300 --> 00:26:05,420
Two years after Lewes' death,
Eliot did find love again.

404
00:26:05,420 --> 00:26:09,180
This time, she married legally,
in the spring of 1880.

405
00:26:14,340 --> 00:26:18,380
And nine days after the wedding,
she received an unexpected letter.

406
00:26:22,900 --> 00:26:27,180
"My dear sister, I have much pleasure
in availing myself of the present

407
00:26:27,180 --> 00:26:31,380
"opportunity to break the long
silence which has existed between us

408
00:26:31,380 --> 00:26:34,340
"by offering
sincere congratulations.

409
00:26:37,580 --> 00:26:40,660
"Your affectionate brother,
Isaac Evans."

410
00:26:42,620 --> 00:26:45,700
This short note seemed
to bring to an end

411
00:26:45,700 --> 00:26:49,060
half a lifetime of separation
between brother and sister.

412
00:26:52,900 --> 00:26:55,580
But sadly, it was not to be.

413
00:26:55,580 --> 00:26:58,460
George Eliot died
in December that year

414
00:26:58,460 --> 00:27:01,220
without ever
seeing her brother again.

415
00:27:03,660 --> 00:27:04,820
We will never know

416
00:27:04,820 --> 00:27:08,220
if her brother Isaac ever read
The Mill On The Floss.

417
00:27:08,220 --> 00:27:11,940
But if he did, he would've had
to recognise that his sister had

418
00:27:11,940 --> 00:27:15,140
produced a masterpiece of
moral complexity and sadness.

419
00:27:23,700 --> 00:27:29,980
What Eliot had created was a powerful
account of female self-realisation

420
00:27:29,980 --> 00:27:32,660
and the barriers that
so often prevented it.

421
00:27:36,740 --> 00:27:39,060
For me, the book's heroine is

422
00:27:39,060 --> 00:27:42,940
one of English fiction's
most engaging creations.

423
00:27:44,140 --> 00:27:46,940
Maggie is one of the great heroines

424
00:27:46,940 --> 00:27:51,260
precisely because she's not perfect,
and none of us are.

425
00:27:53,340 --> 00:27:56,260
"No wonder,
when there is this contrast

426
00:27:56,260 --> 00:28:00,620
"between the outward and the inward,
that painful collisions come of it.

427
00:28:01,620 --> 00:28:03,660
"A girl of no startling appearance

428
00:28:03,660 --> 00:28:06,900
"or anything else
that the world takes wide note of

429
00:28:06,900 --> 00:28:11,660
"may still hold forces within her
as the living plant seed does,

430
00:28:11,660 --> 00:28:14,540
"which will make a way
from themselves,

431
00:28:14,540 --> 00:28:17,660
"often in a shattering,
violent manner."

432
00:28:20,340 --> 00:28:23,820
If you want to dig deeper into
George Eliot's The Mill On The Floss,

433
00:28:23,820 --> 00:28:26,180
and other books in this series,

434
00:28:26,180 --> 00:28:30,460
go to...

435
00:28:30,460 --> 00:28:32,900
and follow the links
to the Open University.