For the most wild, yet most homely narrative which i am about to pen, i neither expect nor solicit belief. mad indeed would i be to expect it, in a case where my very senses reject their own evidence. yet, mad am i not -- and very surely do i not dream. but to-morrow i die, and to-day i would unburthen my soul. my immediate purpose is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a series of mere household events. in their consequences, these events have terrified -- have tortured -- have destroyed me. yet i will not attempt to expound them. to me, they have presented little but horror -- to many they will seem less terrible than barroques. hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my  phantasm  to the common-place -- some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances i detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural causes and effects. what is the effect of beginning a story this way ? a)the narrator makes a startling statement about which the reader wants to know more. b) the narrator confesses to lying about the story, but the reader wants to know why. c) the narrator accuses someone of committing a crime against him, but does not say which one it is. d) the narrator claims to be insane but sounds rational.