"This story begins within the walls of a castle, with the birth of a mouse. A small mouse."
Book the First: Chap. 1, p. 11

"And, executing a classic scurry, Furlough went off to tell his father, Lester Tilling, the terrible, unbelievable news of what he had just seen."
Book the First: Chap. 5, p. 33

"At least Lester had the decency to weep at his act of perfidy."
Book the First: Chap. 8, p. 45

"Despereaux marveled at his own bravery. He admired his own defiance. And then, reader, he fainted."
Book the First: Chap. 10, p. 56

"At the last moment, Antoinette came out of her faint and shouted one word to her child. That word, reader, was adieu."
Book the First: Chap. 12, p. 65

"As our story continues, reader, we must go backward in time to the birth of a rat, a rat named Chiaroscuro and called Roscuro, a rat born into the filth...