A melancholy tale highlighting the wisdom behind the adage "Be cafeful what you wish for". Pip is a seven-year-old orphan raised in a small town by his somewhat blusterous sister and her gentle and kind husband. Unexpectedly, Pip is asked to come and meet Miss Havisham, a lonely spinster of great wealth. Upon his arrival at her estate, he meets her adopted niece, Estella, and instantly falls in love, despite the fact that Miss Havisham is grooming Estella to be a cold and indifferent woman. In order to win her affections he longs to grow up "a gentleman" and becomes unsatisfied with his poor environment. Pip eventually comes into a great fortune, though is not told who his patron might be, and is whisked away to London to begin his gentlemans training. The rest of the story is devoted to Pip's discovery of his benefactor, the circumstances surrounding Estella true history, and his efforts in fixing the unfortunate situations many of his friends find themselves. In the end, Pip's fortune is lost, but his good deeds show him to be a truer gentleman than any amount of money can bestow in title. Though Estella eventually marries another, Pip continues to pine for her. In the original story, Estella remarries to another after her first awful husband dies. In the revised edition (probably created to give the story a more satisfactory happily-ever-after feeling), Estella and Pip meet up again after many, many years and rekindle their aquaintance by becoming "more than friends". Of course I've neglected to mention, thus far, the convict which Pip helped as a child and his subsequent involvement in the story. A great Dickens novel, as all are, and a meticulously detailed story that satisfies those who love intricate plots with unpredictable twists and turns.