What's the story?

I think that Charles Dickens wrote The Great Expectations as an opportunity to cast a fictional character (Pip), who somewhat mirrors his own life. There are many common attributes between the author and the character. Dickens lived in Kent, England as did Pip. He then moved to London, which Pip also does. He doesn't always follow his own life, but does in some ways create a different world for himself with different characters. Charles Dickens does use literary techniques (as does every author), but the technique that I found the most unique was almost basing the main character off of himself. Maybe more authors do this themselves, but this is the first time I have ever heard/noticed it before. In this sense, Pip is almost the box inside a box. An inside look into how Dickens perceives himself when written into a story. Then again, maybe I'm missing the authors original intent, but I find it very interesting.