BOOK: The Mill On The Floss - George Eliot

Title: The Mill On The Floss
Author: George Eliot
Genre: Novel, family, drama
Publisher: Penguin Popular Classics (1994), 1860
Pages: paperback, 534
Language: English (read parts in Dutch)
Rating: 6/10
Summary: Maggie and her brother Tom grow up living in the Dolcote mill near the river Floss in small town St. Ogg's, England around 1830. When their father ends up in debth their lives change drastically and they are forced to leave their comfortable surroundings.

Spoilerfree review
I found an old Dutch edition of this book on my shelf but bought the original English version to read.
I was amused when two characters were having a rather negative conversation about 'Dutchmen' and I wondered how that had been translated. As it turns out, the translator probably didn't think it was funny at all and LEFT THE WHOLE BIT OUT! The Dutchmen weren't even mentioned!
After that I was determined to definitely read the rest of the book in English. But I struggled a lot with the language and accents so after a while I decided to speed things up and read a couple of chapters in translation. Even in the old language (early twentieth century Dutch) it was a lot easier to comprehend than the original English. But when I tried to compare another reference I noticed not only missing bits but also completely changed texts and I once again returned to the English paperback.
In the end I learned the Dutch translation was mostly missing the parts that I didn't like about the book. In between the story the narrator goes off to give his/her opinion on the characters and events. I found this to be very distracting. At the beginning of the book I thought this person would turn out to be a part of the story, but he/she never actually reveils his/her name or source of information. (I mentioned the same issue in my review of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer which was written in the same era, maybe a sign of the times?)

The main story of Maggie and Tom was not very satisfying for me. I didn't like either one of the characters as Maggie is too much of a cry baby and Tom is too arrogant to care about. I did understand that both of them were obviously products of their upbringing; Maggie was always told she was a naughty girl and good for nothing because she didn't fit in with the expectations people had of females in her class. Tom was taught to be a man and surpress his feelings. Even though they are brother and sister they approach each other according to these (ancient) stereo-types. I got all that, but the context of their struggles just wasn't fascinating enough for me to care. The story jumps in time to events that aren't even that interesting and after a while Maggie's inner turmoil is mostly annoying.
Maybe I wanted to like this story too much, because it came highly recommended by a good friend. But while I think I understand the appeal, it didn't work for me.