0:00:03 > 0:00:05See how the tide is carrying us out,
0:00:05 > 0:00:08away from all those unnatural bonds
0:00:08 > 0:00:13that we've been trying to make fast around us and trying in vain.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16It will carry us on, never pause a moment
0:00:16 > 0:00:22till we are bound to each other so that only death can part us.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29There are moments in a life when everything changes.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31For Maggie Tulliver, the young heroine of this book,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34The Mill On The Floss, one such moment occurs
0:00:34 > 0:00:38when she elopes on a boat with a man she's hopelessly attracted to.
0:00:39 > 0:00:43Once back on dry land, Maggie's life will never be the same again.
0:00:46 > 0:00:50I first read The Mill On The Floss in my early 20s.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52From the opening pages,
0:00:52 > 0:00:55I was swept away in this classic coming-of-age tale.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59The heroine is caught up in confusing moral crosscurrents
0:00:59 > 0:01:02and ultimately ends up a fallen woman.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07At the time of its writing,
0:01:07 > 0:01:10the book's author was also a social outcast,
0:01:10 > 0:01:14shunned by Victorian society for her scandalous relationship
0:01:14 > 0:01:15with a married man.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18Partly because of this,
0:01:18 > 0:01:20the writer, Mary Ann Evans, chose to publish
0:01:20 > 0:01:23under a male pseudonym, George Eliot.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31The Mill On The Floss was her most autobiographical novel,
0:01:31 > 0:01:33but it's also a kind of anti-biography.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39The kind of life that Maggie Tulliver leads is one that Eliot herself might
0:01:39 > 0:01:44have led had she not left her provincial home to become a London writer.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48For me, this book is Eliot's masterpiece, a complex, funny,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52all too human story of conflicting emotions,
0:01:52 > 0:01:55of childhood and early adulthood, and its thwarted desires.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59And 155 years after publication,
0:01:59 > 0:02:02the book still has the capacity to shock, especially with
0:02:02 > 0:02:04the tragic denouement, which,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07whenever I read it, I am reduced to tears.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27"And this is Dorlcote Mill.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31"I must stand a minute or two here on the bridge and look at it.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37"The unresting wheel, sending out its diamond jets of water.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41"That little girl is watching it, too.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43"She has been standing on just the same spot
0:02:43 > 0:02:47"at the edge of the water, ever since I paused on the bridge.
0:02:49 > 0:02:52"It is time the little play fellow went in, I think."
0:02:57 > 0:02:59The book's main character, Maggie Tulliver,
0:02:59 > 0:03:03is just a little girl when the story begins.
0:03:03 > 0:03:04She lives in the local mill,
0:03:04 > 0:03:09next to the River Floss with her mother, father and older brother Tom,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11on the edge of the fictional town of St Ogg's.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Maggie has a head of wild black hair,
0:03:16 > 0:03:19dark skin and dark eyes to match.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23She's rebellious, impulsive and fiercely intelligent.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Indeed, her father says about her that she is "too cute for a woman
0:03:27 > 0:03:31"but an overcute woman's no better nor a longtailed sheep,
0:03:31 > 0:03:33"she'll fetch none the bigger price for that."
0:03:36 > 0:03:40Here, Eliot, with her usual wit, is satirising the limited social role
0:03:40 > 0:03:43of young women in the 1820s Britain.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46A different future awaits Maggie's brother.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50Tom, by virtue of his privilege of being a boy,
0:03:50 > 0:03:53is destined to play a greater role in society
0:03:53 > 0:03:56and so his father sets great store by his future.
0:03:56 > 0:03:59"I shall give him an education and set him up
0:03:59 > 0:04:02"to a business as he might make a nest for himself,"
0:04:02 > 0:04:04he declares proudly,
0:04:04 > 0:04:09before sending him off to a private school at great personal expense.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14Although Tom is not the brightest compared to his sister, needless
0:04:14 > 0:04:18to say, Maggie doesn't receive the same educational opportunities.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21Her schooling ends at the age of 13.
0:04:23 > 0:04:26But the life of the author herself followed a very different path.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32Eliot was born here on the Arbury estate
0:04:32 > 0:04:36in rural Warwickshire on 22nd November 1819.
0:04:36 > 0:04:40She was christened Mary Ann Evans.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Her father was the estate manager but, unlike Mr Tulliver,
0:04:44 > 0:04:49he was determined that his daughter receive a proper education.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53From the age of five, Evans attended a number of local boarding schools.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59However, her formal education ended at 16 when her mother died
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and she became her father's housekeeper.
0:05:03 > 0:05:07Undeterred, the independent-minded Mary Ann
0:05:07 > 0:05:09continued to read voraciously.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13She would come here to Arbury Hall,
0:05:13 > 0:05:16the grand house belonging to her father's employers.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Inside this library,
0:05:21 > 0:05:26she would eagerly devour books on subjects as various as philosophy,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30religion, natural sciences, the arts, novels -
0:05:30 > 0:05:33she particularly liked Sir Walter Scott.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37The young Mary Ann Evans was so insatiable for knowledge that
0:05:37 > 0:05:42later she taught herself Latin, Greek, French, German, Spanish,
0:05:42 > 0:05:46Hebrew, and she would read books in these various languages.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53Evans would give her young heroine a similar hunger for learning.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00For Maggie Tulliver, books have an almost totemic power to transport
0:06:00 > 0:06:01and thrill.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05And for Evans, her love of literature was inextricably bound up
0:06:05 > 0:06:09with her desire to escape a life of domestic tedium.
0:06:11 > 0:06:16In 1851, after the death of her father, she made the bold step
0:06:16 > 0:06:21of moving to the capital, with its vibrant literary scene.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26And it's in London, at the British Library, where the
0:06:26 > 0:06:29only surviving manuscript of the Mill on the Floss is held.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35And there is her handwriting, which is unbelievable that one can see it.
0:06:35 > 0:06:37As you can see, it's incredibly neat
0:06:37 > 0:06:39and it's now in bound volumes,
0:06:39 > 0:06:42but at the time that Eliot was writing it, these pages would
0:06:42 > 0:06:45have just been loose sheets, it's been bound up since.
0:06:45 > 0:06:49The advantage of that was she could rewrite sections,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52discard the original pages, bits moved around, bits crossed out,
0:06:52 > 0:06:53you really do get a sense
0:06:53 > 0:06:56of her working on it, perhaps struggling in places
0:06:56 > 0:06:59to try and bring it together in a way she was happy with it.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03I can see a correction there, which is exciting, cos you feel somebody thinking.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06That's right. There are a few examples in these chapters.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Goodness, she has cut a bit there.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11That's right. This section she seems to have cut out altogether.
0:07:11 > 0:07:17This is part of a scene where the young Tom and Maggie are out to play,
0:07:17 > 0:07:20they have a bit of an argument and in this section,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23she sits there, having a little reverie,
0:07:23 > 0:07:25thinking about how life would be so much better
0:07:25 > 0:07:29if her brother Tom was to love her even more than she loved him.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Possibly Eliot decided this was too much detail
0:07:32 > 0:07:34for this section, so she cut it out.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Evans took enormous care crafting the central relationship
0:07:41 > 0:07:45of the novel, that between Maggie and her brother Tom.
0:07:46 > 0:07:52"I love Tom so dearly, better than anybody else in the world.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55"When he grows up, I shall keep his house
0:07:55 > 0:07:58"and we shall always live together.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01"I can tell him everything he doesn't know."
0:08:01 > 0:08:03Their intense relationship is fractured
0:08:03 > 0:08:06when Maggie forms a close bond with Philip Wakem.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12Philip's father is a lawyer, closely involved in a legal dispute
0:08:12 > 0:08:16that has led to Mr Tulliver's bankruptcy and the loss of his mill.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21As a result, Maggie's family forbid her from having anything to do
0:08:21 > 0:08:24with the son of their arch enemy.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28But she decides to defy them and secretly meets Philip.
0:08:28 > 0:08:33These are the Red Deeps - a forest near Evans' own birthplace.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38And it's here that she played out Maggie's growing friendship
0:08:38 > 0:08:39with Philip.
0:08:41 > 0:08:45Like Maggie, young Philip was a gentle and sensitive soul,
0:08:45 > 0:08:48who craved her affection.
0:08:48 > 0:08:50And on their secret walks together,
0:08:50 > 0:08:55they would discuss art and literature and the troubles of their young lives
0:08:55 > 0:08:59and Philip eventually declares his love for Maggie.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01And she doesn't quite reciprocate
0:09:01 > 0:09:06because she's always aware of the feud between the two families.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10So though she is fond of Philip, she doesn't quite commit to him.
0:09:14 > 0:09:17When Tom finds out about these meetings,
0:09:17 > 0:09:19he is furious with his sister.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22"You are a disobedient,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25"deceitful daughter who throws away her own respectability
0:09:25 > 0:09:28"by clandestine meetings with the son of a man
0:09:28 > 0:09:31"who has helped to ruin her father."
0:09:33 > 0:09:37Tom forces Maggie to meet Philip one last time,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40to tell him their friendship can no longer continue.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45A disappointed and angry Philip responds.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48"It is not right, Maggie.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51"I would give up a great deal for my father,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55"but I would not give up an attachment or a friendship
0:09:55 > 0:09:58"of any sort in obedience to any wish of his
0:09:58 > 0:10:00"that I did not recognise as right."
0:10:01 > 0:10:05"I could not have my own will," responds a crestfallen Maggie.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10"Our life is determined for us."
0:10:13 > 0:10:17The idea of forbidden relationships is central to the novel.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21But parallels to the story can be found in the author's own life.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Within a few years of moving to London,
0:10:27 > 0:10:32Evans had fallen in love with a man called George Henry Lewes.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Both emotionally and intellectually, it was a great meeting of minds.
0:10:37 > 0:10:41They fell in love during the spring of 1853 and, shortly afterwards,
0:10:41 > 0:10:43they moved in together.
0:10:43 > 0:10:46There was just one small problem.
0:10:47 > 0:10:49Lewes was already married.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55Victorian society took an extremely dim view of their relationship.
0:10:55 > 0:10:57But Evans was defiant.
0:10:57 > 0:11:01She had finally found the physical and emotional affection
0:11:01 > 0:11:03she had long craved.
0:11:05 > 0:11:07Evans was socially shunned
0:11:07 > 0:11:10as a result of her relationship with Lewes.
0:11:10 > 0:11:13But for her, it was a price worth paying.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Although Lewes couldn't, or wouldn't, divorce his wife,
0:11:16 > 0:11:20he and Mary Ann behaved like a married couple.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22She always referred to him as her husband
0:11:22 > 0:11:25and believed she had found not just a partner, but a soul mate.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30He came from quite a rackety background.
0:11:30 > 0:11:32Very urban, unlike her rural background.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34He's the illegitimate son of a poet,
0:11:34 > 0:11:37grandson of a musical comedian.
0:11:37 > 0:11:38He's entirely self-taught
0:11:38 > 0:11:41and he has that kind of extraordinary freshness of mind,
0:11:41 > 0:11:43because he's very, very good on science, he's fascinated by
0:11:43 > 0:11:49the new kind of knowledge that's coming out of geology, archaeology.
0:11:49 > 0:11:53I mean, he's the kind of Renaissance Man! He's immensely attractive.
0:11:53 > 0:11:55But it was a scandalous relationship?
0:11:55 > 0:11:58Well, what was scandalous about it was not the fact that a man
0:11:58 > 0:12:00and woman are having sex and they're not married to each other,
0:12:00 > 0:12:03it's that they refused to hide the fact,
0:12:03 > 0:12:05and it's that that makes it scandalous.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Later, when she took the name George Eliot, why did she do that?
0:12:08 > 0:12:11She knew that, if she published a novel under her own name,
0:12:11 > 0:12:12everybody would be looking to see
0:12:12 > 0:12:15- whether it came from a sort of tainted source, you know.- Yeah.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17How does she handle problems with sex and so forth?
0:12:17 > 0:12:19So she wanted a nom de plume,
0:12:19 > 0:12:22something to kind of stand between her and what she imagined
0:12:22 > 0:12:25would be the sort of jabbering tongues and the pointed fingers.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27And to choose a man's name also
0:12:27 > 0:12:30- seems to kind of make it more impersonal.- Yeah.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33She's not going to be judged as a woman, or as a scandalous woman.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40But Victorian society did judge Eliot as a scandalous woman.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43And it would never accept such an irregular relationship.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47And neither would her family, especially her older brother Isaac.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53In a letter she wrote to him in 1857, she finally revealed the secret
0:12:53 > 0:12:56she had been keeping for the past four years.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01"I have find someone to take care of me in the world.
0:13:01 > 0:13:05"My husband has been known to me for several years
0:13:05 > 0:13:09"and I am well acquainted with his mind and character."
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Isaac Evans was furious
0:13:13 > 0:13:18and his curt reply came two weeks later via his solicitors.
0:13:18 > 0:13:21He could never accept her so-called marriage
0:13:21 > 0:13:25and he ordered the rest of the family never to speak to her again.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Her social isolation was now complete.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33Mary Ann's sister Chrissey stopped writing
0:13:33 > 0:13:37and Isaac remained silent for the next 23 years.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40She was devastated by his rejection.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43But she mined this bitter experience
0:13:43 > 0:13:47to inform the story of The Mill On The Floss.
0:13:49 > 0:13:52" 'Well,' said Tom with cold scorn,
0:13:52 > 0:13:55" 'if your feelings are so much better than mine,
0:13:55 > 0:13:56" 'let me see you show them
0:13:56 > 0:14:01" 'in some other way than by conduct that's likely to disgrace us all!
0:14:01 > 0:14:04" 'I have a different way of showing my affection!'
0:14:04 > 0:14:05" 'Because you are a man, Tom,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09" 'and have power and can do something in the world.' "
0:14:16 > 0:14:20George Eliot, a woman who had assumed a man's name,
0:14:20 > 0:14:24was determined to do something in the world.
0:14:24 > 0:14:26And that something was to write.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29She had a clear idea of her purpose as a novelist,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32but had little regard for the kind of fiction
0:14:32 > 0:14:35that most female writers were producing at the time.
0:14:35 > 0:14:41In her 1856 essay, entitled Silly Novels By Lady Novelists,
0:14:41 > 0:14:43Eliot railed against the predominant form of women's fiction,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47which dealt mainly with the love lives of the upper classes.
0:14:47 > 0:14:51She found these stories frothy, pious and pedantic.
0:14:51 > 0:14:55The Mill On The Floss would be none of these things.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00Eliot wrote much of the novel in this house in Wimbledon, South London,
0:15:00 > 0:15:03where she and Lewes moved in March 1859.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08But it was not a happy time for her here emotionally.
0:15:08 > 0:15:12Only three days after moving in, she received a distressing letter
0:15:12 > 0:15:16from her sister Chrissey, telling her that she was dying of consumption.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18Forbidden by her brother to meet her sister,
0:15:18 > 0:15:23even in these desperate circumstances, she was devastated.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29Chrissey died on the 15th of March.
0:15:33 > 0:15:37Eliot immediately stopped working on the book and wrote to a friend.
0:15:38 > 0:15:41"I have been crying myself almost into a stupor
0:15:41 > 0:15:43"over visions of sorrow."
0:15:53 > 0:15:56After spending just over a year writing The Mill On The Floss,
0:15:56 > 0:16:01it was finally published in three volumes in the spring of 1860.
0:16:03 > 0:16:05It was an instant success.
0:16:05 > 0:16:09In just a few weeks, it sold over 5,000 copies.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14However, despite the healthy sales, not all the reviews were positive.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19The Guardian found the last section problematic
0:16:19 > 0:16:22and at odds with the rest of the book and, it's true,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25it's something which has continued to puzzle many readers to this day.
0:16:25 > 0:16:29The critic wrote, "There is a clear dislocation in the story
0:16:29 > 0:16:32"between Maggie's girlhood and her great temptation."
0:16:34 > 0:16:37Maggie's great temptation comes in the character
0:16:37 > 0:16:41of 25-year-old Stephen Guest, the dashing young son
0:16:41 > 0:16:44of one of St Ogg's richest merchant families.
0:16:45 > 0:16:49Although Maggie is strongly attracted to Guest,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52once again, this is a forbidden relationship.
0:16:52 > 0:16:55He is already engaged to Maggie's cousin Lucy,
0:16:55 > 0:16:56but this doesn't deter him
0:16:56 > 0:16:59from declaring his passionate feelings for Maggie.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02" 'I am mad with love for you!"
0:17:02 > 0:17:04" 'If you do love me dearest,' he said,
0:17:04 > 0:17:09" 'it is better, it is right that we should marry each other.' "
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Maggie is torn between loyalty to Lucy, her family
0:17:12 > 0:17:15and her intense desires.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17" 'Oh, it is difficult!
0:17:18 > 0:17:20" 'Life is very difficult!
0:17:21 > 0:17:24" 'Many things are dark to me.
0:17:24 > 0:17:28" 'But I see one thing quite clearly, that I must not,
0:17:28 > 0:17:34" 'cannot seek my own happiness by sacrificing others.'
0:17:34 > 0:17:36" 'Love is natural!
0:17:36 > 0:17:41" 'But surely pity and faithfulness and memory are natural too!'
0:17:43 > 0:17:45" 'Our love would be poisoned!' "
0:17:49 > 0:17:53Stephen Guest tries one last time to lure Maggie into his arms.
0:17:56 > 0:17:59Having drifted out to sea on an ill-fated boat trip,
0:17:59 > 0:18:03they find themselves having to spend the night out on deck.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09Although they don't sleep together, it looks like an elopement
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and their relationship is no longer secret.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18Now, in this instant, Maggie's life had changed utterly.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20She's doomed.
0:18:20 > 0:18:24Despite having never consummated her relationship with Guest,
0:18:24 > 0:18:26she was now a social pariah.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32It's little wonder that Maggie's great temptation
0:18:32 > 0:18:35has left many critics and readers confused.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39Her motives seem irrational and opaque, even to herself.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45" 'I would rather have died than fall into this temptation.
0:18:47 > 0:18:51" 'It would've been better if we had parted forever then.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53" 'But we must part now.'
0:18:53 > 0:18:56"Her heart beat like the heart of a frightened bird.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00" 'Remember what we both felt weeks ago?
0:19:00 > 0:19:02" 'That we owed ourselves to others?' "
0:19:03 > 0:19:05She goes on to say...
0:19:05 > 0:19:08" 'The wrong remains the same.' "
0:19:10 > 0:19:13This was new territory for English fiction.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Eliot, a female writer, was exploring the bewildering
0:19:16 > 0:19:21and often self-destructive forces of human sexuality.
0:19:21 > 0:19:23And in exploring these ideas,
0:19:23 > 0:19:27she was heavily influenced by a German author she much admired -
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35The novel that particularly inspired George Eliot
0:19:35 > 0:19:38when she was writing Mill On The Floss,
0:19:38 > 0:19:40of course, is his novel from 1809,
0:19:40 > 0:19:43Die Wahlverwandtschaften - Elective Affinities.
0:19:43 > 0:19:47Goethe uses the chemical idea that certain elements will be
0:19:47 > 0:19:50naturally attracted to others and will combine
0:19:50 > 0:19:52to form new elements and so, of course,
0:19:52 > 0:19:54it's a kind of sexual story, really.
0:19:54 > 0:19:59So do you feel that influenced her ability to write about Maggie,
0:19:59 > 0:20:01who's attempting to be virtuous but, in fact,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03- falls in love with Stephen Guest?- Yes.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06- Which is a sort of... an elective affinity.- It is, it is.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10She entitles a chapter Illustrating The Laws Of Attraction,
0:20:10 > 0:20:12so she quite clearly has got Goethe in mind there.
0:20:12 > 0:20:17Um, and also, they float down the river together and the big episode
0:20:17 > 0:20:21- in the Wahlverwandtschaften also takes place in a boat.- Ah.
0:20:21 > 0:20:22So she took a lot of the plot from Goethe?
0:20:22 > 0:20:25She did take quite a lot of the plot from Goethe, but she also took
0:20:25 > 0:20:29a kind of open-handed, open-minded view of sexual relations.
0:20:29 > 0:20:34She admired Goethe's lack of moralising...
0:20:34 > 0:20:38- Hmm.- ..and his love of generosity, as a writer,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42towards what she calls mixed and erring humanity,
0:20:42 > 0:20:46er, people who make mistakes and yet can be forgiven.
0:20:46 > 0:20:50And she gets as near, I think, to any writer in the 19th century
0:20:50 > 0:20:53in England to being open about sexual attraction,
0:20:53 > 0:20:55and that's what she is in this novel.
0:20:56 > 0:20:58In her own life, Eliot knew all too well
0:20:58 > 0:21:02the consequences of chemical attraction and sexual desires.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08Her relationship with George Henry Lewes came at a high price.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12Being estranged from her brother was always her greatest regret.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16And this was a theme that she would return to
0:21:16 > 0:21:18in the book's cataclysmic ending.
0:21:20 > 0:21:25At just 19 years of age, Maggie was already a fallen woman.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29With no-one else to turn to, and in complete desperation,
0:21:29 > 0:21:31she heads back to the old mill
0:21:31 > 0:21:34and she begs her brother Tom for sanctuary.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36But he rejects her.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40" 'You will find no home with me!
0:21:40 > 0:21:43" 'You've disgraced my father's name! You've been base, deceitful!
0:21:43 > 0:21:46" 'No motives are strong enough to restrain you!
0:21:46 > 0:21:49" 'I wash my hands of you for ever!
0:21:49 > 0:21:51" 'You don't belong to me!' "
0:21:53 > 0:21:58For over two decades, George Eliot had no contact with her brother.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00And it was during this time that
0:22:00 > 0:22:04she became the most successful novelist of her generation,
0:22:04 > 0:22:08gaining immense wealth and eventually social acceptance.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11Even Queen Victoria was a fan.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16But in 1878, her soul mate, George Henry Lewes, died.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18THUNDER RUMBLES
0:22:18 > 0:22:22Eliot was distraught and went into a period of mourning.
0:22:25 > 0:22:28Her brother Isaac still remained silent.
0:22:29 > 0:22:34Eliot's long-wished-for resolution of this painful rift
0:22:34 > 0:22:38would be something that only played out in the pages of her fiction.
0:22:40 > 0:22:44At the end of the book, Maggie is caught up in a violent storm.
0:22:45 > 0:22:48The waters of the Floss rise dangerously
0:22:48 > 0:22:53and the river that once powered the mill now threatens to sweep it away.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59Maggie desperately tries to seek out her family.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02She arrives at the flooded Dorlcote Mill in a small rowing boat
0:23:02 > 0:23:05and Tom scrambles in beside her.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Brother and sister are finally reunited,
0:23:08 > 0:23:11but the flood waters are rising around them.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18"Tom, looking before him, saw death rushing on them.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23" 'It is coming, Maggie,' he said in a deep, hoarse voice,
0:23:23 > 0:23:25"loosing the oars and clasping her."
0:23:28 > 0:23:31'Eliot's emotional investment in the story's ending
0:23:31 > 0:23:35'can be seen in the handwritten pages of her manuscript.'
0:23:35 > 0:23:38You can see how the writing changed.
0:23:38 > 0:23:43- It really is quite different from the first volumes.- Hmm.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45Yes, it... it does look more emotional.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47- You could see it's more slanted. - That's right.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50The very last few pages and you can really see that.
0:23:50 > 0:23:54- Oh, yes! My gosh! - This is the very last section.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57I mean, I did read that she suffered a lot at the end of the book.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00She found it very hard to write, because, of course, she was
0:24:00 > 0:24:06writing her invented resolution of her love for her brother,
0:24:06 > 0:24:09which, in real life, was not being played out
0:24:09 > 0:24:11- in the same way at all.- Absolutely.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16Maggie and Tom are almost about to go down in the boat.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20"Clinging together in fatal fellowship." Oh, gosh!
0:24:20 > 0:24:23And much bigger spacing between each line and, I mean,
0:24:23 > 0:24:28one of her servants did say that she was red-eyed in the morning whilst
0:24:28 > 0:24:32she was writing this, but certainly, you can see great passion in it.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42"The next instant, the boat was not seen on the water.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48"Brother and sister had gone down in an embrace never to be parted,
0:24:48 > 0:24:51"living through again in one supreme moment
0:24:51 > 0:24:55"the days when they had clasped their little hands in love
0:24:55 > 0:24:58"and roamed the daisyed fields together.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03"In their death, they were not divided."
0:25:09 > 0:25:11It's a deeply moving ending.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15This brother and sister, who have so often been at loggerheads,
0:25:15 > 0:25:18are finally reunited, but only in death.
0:25:20 > 0:25:25You get the feeling it's a sort of wish fulfilment on Eliot's part.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29She had achieved so much that her heroine Maggie Tulliver could not -
0:25:29 > 0:25:32intellectual fulfilment and romantic love -
0:25:32 > 0:25:34but on the other side,
0:25:34 > 0:25:38there was one part of her life that remained an open wound.
0:25:39 > 0:25:45Eliot's inability to befriend her brother during her life
0:25:45 > 0:25:49was a private sorrow that she was able to mine
0:25:49 > 0:25:53and weave into, er, a piece of art.
0:26:01 > 0:26:05Two years after Lewes' death, Eliot did find love again.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09This time, she married legally, in the spring of 1880.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18And nine days after the wedding, she received an unexpected letter.
0:26:22 > 0:26:27"My dear sister, I have much pleasure in availing myself of the present
0:26:27 > 0:26:31"opportunity to break the long silence which has existed between us
0:26:31 > 0:26:34"by offering sincere congratulations.
0:26:37 > 0:26:40"Your affectionate brother, Isaac Evans."
0:26:42 > 0:26:45This short note seemed to bring to an end
0:26:45 > 0:26:49half a lifetime of separation between brother and sister.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55But sadly, it was not to be.
0:26:55 > 0:26:58George Eliot died in December that year
0:26:58 > 0:27:01without ever seeing her brother again.
0:27:03 > 0:27:04We will never know
0:27:04 > 0:27:08if her brother Isaac ever read The Mill On The Floss.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11But if he did, he would've had to recognise that his sister had
0:27:11 > 0:27:15produced a masterpiece of moral complexity and sadness.
0:27:23 > 0:27:30What Eliot had created was a powerful account of female self-realisation
0:27:30 > 0:27:32and the barriers that so often prevented it.
0:27:36 > 0:27:39For me, the book's heroine is
0:27:39 > 0:27:43one of English fiction's most engaging creations.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46Maggie is one of the great heroines
0:27:46 > 0:27:51precisely because she's not perfect, and none of us are.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56"No wonder, when there is this contrast
0:27:56 > 0:28:00"between the outward and the inward, that painful collisions come of it.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03"A girl of no startling appearance
0:28:03 > 0:28:06"or anything else that the world takes wide note of
0:28:06 > 0:28:11"may still hold forces within her as the living plant seed does,
0:28:11 > 0:28:14"which will make a way from themselves,
0:28:14 > 0:28:17"often in a shattering, violent manner."
0:28:20 > 0:28:23If you want to dig deeper into George Eliot's The Mill On The Floss,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26and other books in this series,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30go to...
0:28:30 > 0:28:33and follow the links to the Open University.