The hero is an orphan raised in humble surroundings, in the early decades of the nineteenth century, comes into a fortune, and promptly disavows family and friends. When the fortune first loses its lustre, then evaporates completely, he confronts his own ingratitude, and learns to love the man who both created and destroyed him. The story is told by the hero himself, and the challenge Dickens faced in devising this first-person narrative was two-fold. He had to ensure that Pip¡¦s confession of his faults ring true, so that we do not suppo ....