Out on the eerie Kent marshes an escaped convict tries to free himself from his irons; in a dismal shut-up house an old woman in a yellowed wedding dress waits in vain for her bridegroom. In the hands of Abel Magwitch and Miss Havisham lies the destiny of young 'Pip' - the blacksmith's apprentice who comes suddenly into money and prospects. Who is his mysterious benefactor? Will Miss Havisham's protege, the cruel beauty Estella, ever return his love? In one of Dickens's best-loved and most enduring novels, written in 1860-1 at the height of his powers, the hero finds that 'great expectations' are not enough when it comes to the real business of living.