I've just read the first three pages of "The mill on the Floss" by George Elliot.

It starts with a short description of the town of st Ogg Ships and it's river: the Floss.

After that there's a description of Dorclote Mill (I guess she's the main character of them book) and her family.

In my opinion the descriptions aren't too long .

I guess the book isn't palaced historically nowadays, in fact in the first pages Dorclote's parents talk about the importance of his brother 's education as a boy, and not Dorclote's one because she's a girl.