Charles Dickens
1850 · London, England
Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.
David Copperfield, the first sentence
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Miguel de Cervantes
1605 · Spain
Idle reader: you may believe me without my swearing it that I would wish this book, as the child of my understanding, to be the most beautiful, the most gallant and the most clever that could be imagined.
Desocupado lector: sin juramento me podrás creer que quisiera que este libro, como hijo del entendimiento, fuera el más hermoso, el más gallardo y más discreto que pudiera imaginarse.
Don Quixote, part 1, prologue
Harriet Jacobs
1861 · North Carolina, USA
Reader be assured this narrative is no fiction. I am aware that some of my adventures may seem incredible; but they are, nevertheless, strictly true.
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, preface
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