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In the 1810s orphan boy Pip Pirrup lives on the Kent marshes with his shrewish sister and her kindly husband,farrier Joe Gargery. On Christmas eve,whilst visiting his parents' grave, he is confronted by an escaped convict who scares him into stealing a file from Joe's forge to cut his fetters though the man is quickly recaptured without incriminating Pip. In the new year Pip is introduced to Miss Havisham in her decaying mansion Satis House. Still wearing the bridal gown in which she was jilted decades earlier,she tells Pip to play cards with her adopted daughter Estella,who,despite her rudeness, captivates the boy. Miss Havisham also summons Joe to pay the fee for Pip's apprenticeship at the forge but,whilst they are signing the papers at Satis House, Mrs Joe,who has recently quarrelled with her husband's assistant,Orlick,is attacked and struck dumb. As the years pass the teen-aged Pip works for Joe,who cannot afford to keep Orlick on. Then one day Mr Jaggers,a lawyer,arrives to tell Pip to accompany him back to London,where an anonymous benefactor has left him a fortune to improve his life-style.
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In London Pip rooms with the unaffected Herbert Pocket,a relative of Miss Havisham,cut off by his family for wanting to marry the poorly situated Clara Barley and whom Pip helps get work. In other respects,as he fritters away the allowance paid him by Jaggers,his guardian,he becomes a snob,uneasy when Joe visits. He is still in love with Estella,as is the egocentric toff Bentley Drummle,but Estella tells Pip she is incapable of love as Miss Havisham taught her to be hard-hearted and Pip is a witness when Estella accuses her adoptive mother of this. Returning from Kent for Mrs Joe's funeral Pip is on the eve of his twenty-first birthday when he will receive his full inheritance when he has a visitor,Abel Magwitch,the convict he once tried to help. To Pip's horror Magwitch tells him that he is his benefactor and not,as Pip had supposed, Miss Havisham.
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Not wanting to accept that Magwitch is his benefactor Pip goes to Satis House where,not only is it confirmed but he is horrified to learn that Estella is marrying Drummle,to destroy him,the continuation of her adopted mother's plan for her to break men's hearts,Pip having been the guinea pig. Back in London his snobbery must be put aside when Herbert tells him that,as a lifer returned unlawfully to England to see Pip,Magwitch will be hung if caught and plans are made to smuggle him on board a ship. Discovering that Estella's mother is Molly,Jaggers' housekeeper whom he saved from the gallows,he forces the lawyer to tell him that Magwitch is the girl's father. Pip thwarts an attempt to kill him by Orlick,who boasts that he attacked Pip's sister,but Orlick,after the reward for Magwitch's capture,is in league with Compeyson,another ex-convict and Magwitch's sworn enemy,as well as the man who jilted Miss Havisham. As Pip rows his benefactor to safety they are intercepted by soldiers led by Compeyson,whom Magwitch kills,himself dying after Pip has told him that his daughter is alive and loved. Returning to Kent to beg Joe's forgiveness he learns that Drummle has died and Estella returned to Satis House to live alone after Miss Havisham has died in a fire. He runs to see her and this time she does not reject him.
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