Great Expectations

9 year old 'Pip' Pirrip, an orphan living with relatives, aids and befriends an escaped convict on the moors, an act that will have a profound effect on his life. Nine year-old orphan 'Pip' Pirrip lives with his harridan older sister and her hen-pecked but good-natured blacksmith husband Joe Gargery in rural, Regency-Period Britain. While visiting his mother's grave near the moors, Pip is set upon by Abel Magwitch, an escaped convict from a prison ship whose intimidating appearance causes Pip to steal food and drink from the Gargeries on his behalf. Although Magwitch had initially threatened Pip, a bond quickly forms between the hardened criminal and the boy, so when the convict is recaptured, he admits to stealing the food, but does not implicate his young accomplice. Shortly thereafter Pip receives an invitation from Mrs. Havisham, a wealthy recluse living in a crumbling mansion to play with her niece Estella. He finds her haughty and cruel but becomes attracted to her beauty as his visits continue. Some time later the Gargeries receive a visit from the condescending lawyer Mr. Javers, who offers Pip an education and allowance that will allow Pip to be free of the grinding poverty of rural England and give him access to the opportunity and sophistication that only London can offer, all at the expense of an anonymous benefactor. As Pip grows to be a young man, he naturally contemplates his sponsor's identity and wonders if it may be the wealthy Miss Havisham. —duke1029@aol.com Charles Dickens' classic tale of Pip, a poor orphan who befriends an escaped convict and who grows up in the company of a bitter old woman, Miss Havisham, and her haughty young ward, Estella. Pip learns the rewards of both vindictiveness and gratitude as a result of these events. —Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>