CliffsNotes on Great Expectations follows the story of Pip, an English orphan who rises to wealth, deserts his true friends, and becomes humbled by his own arrogance. This novel, the journey of Pip from boyhood to young manhood, has become Charles Dickens's greatest novel. The many tests of character that Pip confronts, as well as Dickens's characters, remain in the mind a long time after the book is read.