Two Recent Reads

Last weekend I read The Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The novel is unfinished and published in 1941 with the author's outlines and notes to fill out the story. Here is an extensive NYTimes Review. I enjoyed the book and rather liked the abrupt end.
The book is set in 1930's Hollywood. The protagonist, Morgan Stahr, is a widower and workaholic in his late 30's. The book is narrated by Cecelia, who is a college student and daughter of Stahr's coworker. Looking at middle age life and dating through the eyes of a young adult is a thoughtful, unique perspective that enhances the story. The book is a fascinating glimpse into Depression Era Hollywood and wealth. Advisory: the book contains a couple of affairs with encounters that may have been racy in 1941. They are not excessively graphic (tame by today's standards), but make the book inappropriate for children.

In June I read The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, written in 1860 and set in the 1830's. I read an antique copy from 1920.
The story follows Maggie, the protagonist, and her brother Tom, through childhood, then revisits them as young adults.
Maggie is a trouble-maker and tomboy as a child. She would prefer to be a boy entering a profession. Her mother ignores her and her father indulges her, so she receives insufficient guidance and "street sense" to function as a woman in the society of her day. Tom is athletic has a rigid sense of right and wrong. He would prefer to be a mechanic or engineer, but his father pushes him toward law or clerical work.
The story itself is good enough, but in my opinion, the book is unnecessarily long and filled with Ms. Eliot's asides. She follows the Jane Austen template of a small-town family and their circle of acquaintances, their love lives and their gossip. Unlike Ms. Austen's novels, however, The Mill on the Floss is melodramatic and implausibly tragic. ("Soap opera" comes to mind.)
I had difficulty sympathizing with Maggie. I felt Ms. Eliot was using her solely to teach a lesson about that society's role for women and the ostricization the author must have felt because of her own lifestyle, rather than developing Maggie into a realistic character. That might be a worthwhile theme, but it doesn't lend itself to an enjoyable novel. I would recommend this book only to those who enjoy George Eliot's style or who are prepared to skim a lot.