bohoautumn 's review for:

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
3.0

While Jane Austen is lace and tea amidst neighbourhood gossip, George Eliot is grit and pain amidst the daily grind. Austen has a sharp wit and sharp eye for character nuances. Eliot however, is a master at deeper insight, imho. It is absolutely delicious to enter into the motivations behind a character's thoughts and behaviours. I find that Eliot laser-beams right to the core, every time.

Eliot's observations also make for very well-fleshed out characters. At least for the three central ones. Maggie, our leading lady, is multi-layerd. We know her, we love her, we feel her moral and romantic pains. Or she annoys us, but she leaves a real impact. This novel is also semi-autobiographical, which makes her childhood experiences particularly intriguing.

I didn't enjoy it as much as the soap-opera of Middlemarch, I'll likely never read it again. Yet Eliot always brings the beauty of rich characterization into my life.