Using a third-person narrator, Great Ambitions accurately captures Charles Dickens's thoughts and experiences as he grows into manhood. Because his father is imprisoned in Marshalsea for bad debts and because he himself earns little money at the blacking factory, the young Dickens entertains himself by watching and imitating the people he passes on the London streets. In a ragsto-riches success story, Dickens rises far above his humble beginnings, and his story becomes universal—a testament to the individual's ability to succeed through sheer determination and perseverance.

Dickens's immediate family plays an important role in the biography. He models Wilkins Micawber in David Copperjield after his father, John Dickens.

In fact, Mr. Micawber's famous and often quoted advice is actually Dickens's father's line: "Yearly income, twenty pounds. Yearly expenditure nineteen pounds, nineteen shillings, and six pence. Result, happiness. Yearly expenditure, twenty pounds, six pence...