The Mill on the Floss (Version 2): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The Mill on the Floss (Version 2), credited to George Eliot, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The Mill on the Floss (Version 2) by George Eliot. Read in English by Tom Denholm The Mill on the Floss is George Eliot’s second novel, and was published in 1860, only a year after her first, Adam Bede. It centres on the lives of brother and sister Tom and Maggie Tulliver growing up on the river Floss near the town of St. Oggs (a fictionalised version of Gainsborough, in Lincolnshire, England) in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, with both as young adults eventually meeting a tragic end by the Mill which the family holds so dear. In large measure, their lives are dominated by their father, a successful miller brought down by his inability to resist settling arguments in a court of law. Character differences between Tom and Maggie - he dour and rigid of thought, she lively and impulsive - seem to matter little in childhood, but eventually strain their relationship beyond breaking point. It is Maggie, however, who is the dominant character of the book, arguably one of the great characters of 19th century literature. Each of her relationships is vital to the narrative: with her parents, with Tom above all, but on a romantic level with Philip Wakem, the sensitive hunchbacked son of her father’s (and Tom’s) bitterest enemy, and with charming and urbane Stephen Guest, fiance of Maggie’s cousin Lucy Deane. Maggie’s life is changed utterly by an impulsive elopement which she turns back from, but too late to stop the inevitable abuse and contempt. This is a semi-autobiographical reflection of the vilification which George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans) herself had to endure while openly living with a married man, a time when her brother was willing to communicate with her only through lawyers. Eliot writes of character and relationships with an insight and sharp detail that few authors have ever equaled. It’s a long book, but you will appreciate it for its depth. - Summary by Tom Denholm

Recording facts

• Recording title: The Mill on the Floss (Version 2)
• Author credits: George Eliot
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 63
• Listed recording duration: 25:39:19

Catalogue topics

• fiction

Opening tracks: first 24 of 63

1. 01 - BOOK FIRST. BOY AND GIRL. Chapter I. Outside Dorlcote Mill — 7:08
2. 02 - Chapter II. Mr Tulliver, of Dorlcote Mill, Declares His Resolution about Tom — 17:01
3. 03 - Chapter III. Mr Riley Gives His Advice Concerning a School for Tom — 37:59
4. 04 - Chapter IV. Tom Is Expected — 15:10
5. 05 - Chapter V. Tom Comes Home — 28:05
6. 06 - Chapter VI. The Aunts and Uncles Are Coming — 33:09
7. 07 - Chapter VII. Part i Enter the Aunts and Uncles — 35:11
8. 08 - Chapter VII. Part ii Enter the Aunts and Uncles, cont'd — 31:11
9. 09 - Chapter VIII. Mr Tulliver Shows His Weaker Side — 28:20
10. 10 - Chapter IX. To Garum Firs — 41:53
11. 11 - Chapter X. Maggie Behaves Worse Than She Expected — 17:47
12. 12 - Chapter XI. Maggie Tries to Run away from Her Shadow — 33:13
13. 13 - Chapter XII. Mr and Mrs Glegg at Home — 39:37
14. 14 - Chapter XIII. Mr Tulliver Further Entangles the Skein of Life — 9:38
15. 15 - BOOK SECOND. SCHOOL-TIME. Chapter I. Part I Tom’s ''First Half'' — 36:51
16. 16 - Chapter I. Part II Tom’s ''First Half'', cont'd — 24:01
17. 17 - Chapter II. The Christmas Holidays — 23:16
18. 18 - Chapter III. The New Schoolfellow — 17:07
19. 19 - Chapter IV. ''The Young Idea'' — 32:05
20. 20 - Chapter V. Maggie's Second Visit — 14:01
21. 21 - Chapter VI. A Love-Scene — 13:49
22. 22 - Chapter VII. The Golden Gates Are Passed — 19:36
23. 23 - BOOK THIRD. THE DOWNFALL. Chapter I. What Had Happened at Home — 18:40
24. 24 - Chapter II. Mrs Tulliver's Teraphim, or Household Gods — 14:05

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