Great Expectations | Charles Dickens

In an overgrown churchyard on the eerie Kent marshes in Great Expectations, the orphan Pip accidently comes upon an escaped convict, Magwitch, and is forced to provide him food--an encounter that is to haunt both their lives. It's written in a semi-autobiographical style, and is the story of Pip, writing his life from his early days of childhood until adulthood.

At his sister's house, Pip is a boy without expectations. Mrs. Joe beats him around and has nothing good to say about her little brother. Her husband Joe is a kind man, although he is a blacksmith without much ambition, and it's assumed that Pip will follow in his footsteps. Only when Pip gets invited unexpectedly to the house of a rich old woman in the village named Miss Havisham, does Mrs. Joe, or any of her dull acquaintances, hold out any hope for Pip's success in Great Expectations.