http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_expectations

 On Christmas Eve of 1812, Pip, an orphan aged 7, encounters an escaped convict in the village churchyard while visiting his family's many graves. The convict scares Pip into stealing food for him and a file  to grind away his leg shackles. He threatens Pip not to tell anyone and do as he says or his friend will cut out Pip's liver. Pip returns home, where he lives with Mrs. Joe, his older sister, and her husband Joe Gargery. His sister is very cruel and beats him and Joe regularly, while Joe is much more kind to Pip. Early the next morning, Pip steals food and drink from the Gargery pantry (including a pie for their Christmas feast) and sneaks out to the graveyard. It is the first time in Pip’s life he’s felt truly guilty. This is an important event in the book because the convict will never forget the kindness (albeit forced) that Pip showed to him. The convict, however, waits many years to fully show his gratitude.

During Christmas dinner with the minister, Mr. Wopsle, Mr. and Mrs. Hubble, and Uncle Pumblechook, Pip and Mrs. Joe's moderately wealthy uncle, no one notices the missing food or brandy until Uncle Pumblechook drinks some brandy and spits it out. Pip realizes that he filled the brandy jug not with water, but with tar water. Pip sits at the table being told how lucky he is by all the relatives and holds on to the dining table leg for dear life, scared that someone will notice the missing pie. When Mrs. Joe gets up and goes to the kitchen for the pie, Pip bolts to the door. However, his way is blocked by police officers. They ask Joe to repair their handcuffs and invite Joe, Pip and Mr. Wopsle to come with them to hunt for some escaped prisoners from the local jail. As they hunt through the marshes outside the village, they accost the two convicts while engaged in a fight. One of them is the convict helped by Pip; however, when questioned about where he got the food and file, he claims he stole the items himself in order to shield Pip. The police take the two to the Hulk, a giant prison ship, and Pip is carried home by Joe, where they finish Christmas dinner. A while after Pip’s encounter with the convict, Pip's life returns to normal. He goes to school, run by Mr. Wopsle's great-aunt, and becomes friends with Biddy, an orphan who was adopted by the Wopsles. He still feels guilty for the theft. Pip's Uncle Pumblechook gets Pip invited to the house of a rich old woman named Miss Havisham, who lives in the village in Satis House. Miss Havisham is a spinster who wears an old wedding dress with one shoe on and has all the house clocks stopped at 20 minutes to nine. She hasn't seen sunlight in years and claims to have a broken heart and just wants to see Pip play cards with Estella, a young girl she has adopted.

After this first meeting, Pip frequently visits Miss Havisham and Estella, for whom he harbours a feeling of obsessive attraction. He begins to tenaciously learn everything he can from Biddy in school, in an effort to impress Estella who called him a common labouring boy. One day, when Pip goes to the town pub to pick up Joe, they are approached by a messenger sent by Pip's convict. He mixes his drink with the stolen file and gives Pip two pounds before leaving. Pip visits Miss Havisham on her birthday where she shows him her wedding cake, which is being eaten by mice, and where she will be laid out when she is dead, a death she looks forward to. He also meets the Pockets, her relatives who only visit her to insure their inheritance. Pip fights a pale boy in the courtyard and easily beats him. Estella allows Pip to kiss her on the cheek and he leaves. Several months later, Miss Havisham crushes Pip's dream of becoming a gentleman when she agrees to help with the papers that would make Pip's apprenticeship to Joe official. Joe comes to the house and Pip is embarrassed by his common appearance and talk. Miss Havisham gives them 25 pounds as a gift and the apprenticeship is finalized.

Pip works with Joe for a few years in the forge, doing work that he hates. In an agreement with Joe, he visits Miss Havisham only on his birthday, when he receives a half-holiday. He and Joe work with a journeyman named Dolge Orlick, who dislikes Pip because he feels that Joe gives Pip special treatment. One day, Orlick and Mrs. Joe begin to fight. Mrs. Joe calls for Joe to defend her honor, and Joe quickly beats him in a fistfight. Later that day, when Pip visits Satis House, he discovers that Estella has been sent abroad for schooling. When he leaves he agrees to spend the evening with Mr. Wopsle and Uncle Pumblechook reading a play. On his way home that night, Pip sees Orlick sneaking away in shadows, and hears the cannons of the Hulk go off. When he returns home, he discovers that Mrs. Joe had been attacked. She becomes a horribly brain-damaged invalid. Pip feels guilty again when the police believe escaped criminals attacked Mrs. Joe. The detectives from London are inexperienced and do not discover anything. Mrs. Joe spends her days calling for Orlick and draws a capital "T" on a slate. Biddy thinks that the "T" represents a hammer and that Orlick is the attacker. When Orlick arrives, Mrs. Joe tries to please him and shows him the slate. Biddy moves in with the Gargerys and Pip confides in her about his feelings for Estella. When Pip and Joe are listening to Mr. Wopsle read a murder trial from a newspaper, a London lawyer, Jaggers, approaches Pip, revealing very startling news: Pip has inherited a large sum of money from an anonymous benefactor. The conditions of the receipt of said money require him to leave for London immediately, buy some clothes and become a gentleman. Pip, because he has always wanted to become a gentleman, graciously accepts these terms. In the days before the move, Pip begins to act haughtily and takes advantage of Joe and Biddy. Before he leaves he visits Miss Havisham. Based on her reaction, Pip is confident that she is the secret benefactor. When he leaves for London, he feels guilty for the way he treated the people that love him but not enough to get off the train and make things right.

In London, Pip is amazed by the crowds of people. He meets Jagger's clerk Wemmick. In Jagger's office, he is introduced to his tutor, Matthew Pocket, and his son, Herbert Pocket, a poor gentleman who wants to become a merchant. Herbert was the pale child that Pip beat in the courtyard. Herbert quickly nicknames Pip "Handel" because he remembers Handel's The Harmonious Blacksmith. Herbert tells Pip the story of Miss Havisham and what happened to her. Miss Havisham was engaged to a man below her social standing. The man convinced her to buy her half-brother's share of the family brewery for him. Herbert believes that the half-brother and the fiance were co-conspirators who decided to split the profits. On the wedding day, she received a note from her fiance at 20 minutes to nine saying he won't marry her and she never tried to marry again. The next day, after spending the morning at the Royal Exchange and being tutored, Pip eats dinner with the Pockets. The Pocket house is a chaotic place full of noisy people.

One stormy night, Pip learns the true identity of his benefactor. It is not Miss Havisham, as he had always thought, but rather a petty criminal named Magwitch who had been transported to New South Wales. Magwitch is the convict Pip helped feed in the churchyard many years ago and he left all his money to Pip in gratitude for that kindness and also because Pip reminded him of his own child, whom he thinks is dead. The news of his benefactor crushes Pip - he's ashamed of Magwitch, and Magwitch wants to spend the rest of his life with Pip. Pip, very reluctantly, lets Magwitch stay with him. There is a warrant out for Magwitch's arrest in England and he'll be hanged if he's caught.

Eventually, because Magwitch is on the run from the law, a plan is hatched by Herbert and Pip which involves fleeing the country by boat.

Meanwhile, Estella has married Bentley Drummle, a marriage that will be an unhappy one. Before Pip flees with Magwitch, he makes one last visit to Miss Havisham. Miss Havisham realizes that she created a monster out of Estella, who broke Pip's heart, and asks him for forgiveness. Miss Havisham stands too close to the fire and lights her dress on fire. Pip heroically saves her but she later dies from her burn injuries.

Pip, Herbert and another friend, Startop, make a gallant attempt to help Magwitch escape, but instead he's captured and sent to jail. Pip is devoted to Magwitch by now and recognizes in him a good and noble man. Pip tries to have Magwitch released but Magwitch dies shortly before he's slated to be executed. Under English law Magwitch's wealth forfeits to the Crown, thus extinguishing Pip's "Great Expectations".

After an extended period of sickness during which he is looked after by Joe, he returns to good health and returns home to ask Biddy for forgiveness and for her love. However, when he arrives, he finds that it is Biddy and Joe's wedding day. Thankful for not mentioning his interest in Biddy to Joe while he was sick, Pip congratulates the happy couple. Afterwards, Pip goes into business overseas with Herbert. After eleven relatively successful years abroad, Pip goes back to visit Joe and the rest of his family out in the marshes. Finally, Pip makes one last visit to the ruins of Miss Havisham's house, where he finds Estella wandering. Her marriage is over, and she seems to have children and wants Pip to accept her as a friend. When the novel ends, it seems that there is hope that Pip and Estella will finally end up together.

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