"The Mill on The Floss" by George Eliot

With everything I read - and maybe because I read so much - I am aware there is so much literature that somehow escaped my attention, for various reasons. For my own pleasure I often go for history, non-fiction and biographies, but there is always a gnawing feeling I should spend more time with classics we all know about but never willingly visit once the obligatory school reading is done. This obligatory school reading its often a mistake because it forces young brains to wrestle with heavy stuff that produces not love & passion for books but in fact ends with completely opposite results, with kids rejecting reading because it wasn't fun or appealing enough. Truth to be told, my excursions into classics are not always fun - "The Phantom of the Opera" was simply old fashioned, moth-eaten story that only bored me and it took some time before I decided to give classics another chance, this time it was definitely worth an effort.

George Eliot is the name I was familiar - but only in theory. If you pressed me about English female writers of classic era, I would name Jane Austen or Brontë sisters but Eliot somehow escaped my attention so far and it was only a chance encounter with her famous "The Mill on the Floss" neatly printed in almost-pocket size edition (ideal for my journeys) that made me pick it up, almost an impulse purchase. Once I decided to check it out, I fell into her world without any problems, in fact I am still reading it and enjoying it very much almost every night after I finish my work. Yes it was originally published in 1860 (more than century and half from now) and writing is occasionally long-winded with description of trees, lakes, rivers and rooftops but Eliot so lovingly paints the picture of rural life with its charming, eccentric characters that I wonder why did I wait all these years to discover her just now - or perhaps it is a perfect timing.

Eliot is not just creating her characters - she is affectionate towards them, explaining their follies, fears and oddities. In her world nobody is black-and-white; everybody has his own reasons why they behave the way they do so in her gentle way, author points how everybody has different perspective - in this she shows amazing compassion for people and naturally has a great gift for story telling. It is not just two main protagonists (brother and sister) but also the whole supporting cast that gets our attention - it would have been easy to simply follow brother and sister, but Eliot is determined to show everybody else and often she shows sparkling sense of humour and how much she loves her characters. Right now I am still not half-way trough the novel but liking it immensely and enjoying every page that I steal from deserved night's sleep. This time, my excursion to classics was a very pleasant surprise.