The story of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, seems to belong less to the history of the Victorian novel than to folklore, fairy tale, or myth. The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters-the eloquent ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the "Marchioness"; the mannish lawyer...

In the gloom of a country graveyard, a young boy encounters an escaped convict, a chance meeting that years later leads the boy to tragedy, mystery and wealth. The orphaned Pip later meets the unattainable Estella, falls in love with her and yearns to better himself in order to be worthy of her