LEADER
Nancy Carr is a discussion leader and educator who is passionate about Victorian literature in general and George Eliot in particular. After earning her Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia with a dissertation partially focused on Eliot’s works, Nancy worked for the Great Books Foundation as an editor and professional development instructor for more than 20 years. She now applies her interest in inquiry-based learning and human development to her work as an instructional designer with the Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work. She lives in Oak Park, IL, with her husband, two dogs, and two cats.
BOOK
The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot
(Oxford World’s Classics, 2015)
ISBN-13: 978-0198707530
“Such closeness to experience is a rich theft from life by art, and all too rare in the great Victorian novelists.” Barbara Hardy, in “Particularities: Readings in George Eliot” (Ohio University Press, 1983).
Maggie Tulliver, the book’s heroine, is a precocious girl whose intellect and passions baffle both her family and larger community. Maggie’s struggles with her father and her brother Tom echo Eliot’s conflicts with her own family members, and in many ways the book’s plot is an inquiry into what might have become of Eliot if she had stayed in a provincial town rather than lighting out for London.
Like Middlemarch, this novel uses omniscient narration to illuminate the larger significances of the characters’ everyday lives. The plot includes a struggle over land and water rights, romance and scandal, family estrangement, and an assessment of what it means to live with integrity. While the book is deeply grounded in its time and place, the questions it raises — What do we owe our families, and ourselves? Is self-sacrifice noble or destructive? What drives some people to dominate others? — are enduring. “The Mill on the Floss” also allows us to see, more than any of Eliot’s other works, how she reshaped her story and remade herself into one of the nineteenth century’s greatest writers.
Toronto Pursuits pricing options
All seminars are $150 off through February 28. Sale prices are automatically applied.
Bring a friend and save even more! Take $100 off your registration for every new friend you bring to Toronto Pursuits. Your friend also saves $100 on their registration. Choose your discount from the dropdown menu based on the number of friends who also plan to register, and let us know your friend’s name in the order notes.
The fine print: To get the bring-a-friend discount, your friend must not have registered for any previous Toronto Pursuits seminar in any year. Your friend must register by July 1, 2025, or Classical Pursuits will apply the nondiscounted price to your final payment. Limit one $100 discount per participant for being referred as a new friend. For example, if person A brings new friend B, person C cannot also claim friend B for the bring-a-friend discount. If friend B brings new friend D, friend B qualifies for $100 discount for being a new referral, and an additional $100 for referring new friend D. Classical Pursuits reserves the right to make all decisions about discount eligibility.
Toronto Pursuits 2025
See the Toronto Pursuits 2025 page for full details on the program schedule, health and safety, booking your accommodations, terms and conditions, and more.
