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 tomorrow I die, and today I would unburthen my soul. My 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.

     This is the opening paragraph for The Black Cat, by Edgar Allen Poe. I chose this passage because of the technique Poe used to draw in the reader. He starts by introducing the character on the night before he is to executed. Just like in the Tell-tale Heart the character begins by stating the fact that he is not crazy, but perfectly sane. From that point on you know the guy went insane, even if it was briefly. That gets the reader interested immediately, and makes them want read more to find out the cause of his temporary insanity. The character explains that he is writing this so that some day someone will be able to understand the reasoning he went through, because he cannot.  To me this is a very effective way to start the story, with a psychopath claiming he is not, and trying to explain way he is not. It makes for an intriguing start to a story.