lord david cecil write an interesting book in the 1930s early victorian novelist and where he look at the work of dickens and thackeray and eliot and trollope and mrs. gaskell and charlotte bronte and and emily bronte . he select these writer a the popular favorite of the first half of the victorian period and and he explain their strength and weakness ( a he saw them ) to the read public . some of his comment be quite relevant to this day and but like all criticism it give an idea of the spirit of the time of the critic life as well . cecil thought highly of george eliot ( mary ann cross ) and who write about seven or eight book ( include sketch and poetry ) . but for most modern reader and they be usually acquaint with her short book and silas marner and which be still read in some high school curriculum . the other book and felix holt the radical and daniel deronda and middlemarch and the mill on the floss and adam bede and romola and scene of clerical life and be still in print ( penguin and for example and have most of them in print ) and but be mostly unread . the one of most interest today be her last novel and deronda and where she discuss the jew in english society and and an incipient and pre hertzl type of zionism . romola be her sole attempt at a historic novel ( about savanarola experiment of a religiously pure republic in florence in the 1490s ) . her meaty novel be middlemarch and which be concern with english society in the province in 1832 and the year of the great reform bill of lord grey . i have to read middlemarch in college for a literature course . it certainly be a thoughtful book ( virginia woolf call it the most grown up book in the english language ) . but it suffer ( like all of eliot novel ) from one defect she can not write livable and exciting prose . while dickens be overly exuberant at time and and thackeray can become pompous and prolix and and trollope can become ( a lord cecil say ) very ordinary in his discussion and and charlotte bronte can fail to explain certain relationship well and and mrs. gaskell seem best deal with female character and all of them ( and emily bronte in her single novel ) hold the reader interest . read most of eliot novel be like try to chisel sentence out of block of marble with a toothpick . to date i have read about fifty page of mill of the floss . i notice that one of the other reviewer never finish the novel too . but i have read a synopsis of what it be about . the tullivers ( maggie and her brother tom ) be the central figure they own the mill in the title . although close at the start of the story and maggie fall in love with the son of a neighbor whose father be involve in legal difficulty with mr. tulliver sr. tom take a dim view of this relationship and and the tragedy of the story be regard the split between the sibling and culminate in their demise at the conclusion ( maggie run back to the mill to rescue tom during a heavy flood and and they die together ) . it must have be a success with victorian reader and but it be very gloomy and depress to modern audience . the movie change the end a little maggie ( geraldine fitzgerald ) do die at the end with her lover and and tom ( james mason ) note their death at the conclusion in his record book . the story be totally rewritten and except for a double death in the flood at the conclusion . it doesn not really help matter . although fitzgerald and mason do pretty well with their part and they can not really pull the film up by their work alone . the end result be a fairly minor film and that fortunately do not hurt the lead career . the only other thing to note be that the boyfriend be play by frank lawton and who two year earlier play david copperfield a a grow up opposite w. c. field and lionel barrymore and and maureen osullivan . but then and lawton never really have a major film career he just happen to always be around in picture and some good and some mediocre .