Maggie Tulliver and her brother Tom enjoy a rural childhood on the banks of the river Floss. But with the approach of adulthood comes tension: intelligent and fiery Maggie tests the boundaries of nineteenth-century society in her search for love, while Tom embraces convention and accepts his father's desire for him to become a businessman. When he discovers that his sister has taken a fateful boat trip with Stephen Guest, her cousin's fiance, he turns his back on her.

With precise plotting underpinned by a wise understanding of human nature, The Mill on the Floss gives a wonderful evocation of rural life and the complicated relationship between siblings.

This edition features an introduction by Kathryn Hughes.