The Mill on the Floss – George Eliot

Most of this classic comprises a portrait of a rural community in the realist style we associate most readily with the wonderful George Eliot. Maggie Tulliver is a convincing heroine, particularly in the childhood sections, and an exemplar of intellectually unfulfilled Victorian womanhood. 

Weirdly, the ending suddenly switches to melodrama, in a way that is both baffling and oddly moving.