"Yes: for ten years I lived the most revolting existence, while dreaming of the noblest love, and even in the name of that love.

Yes, I want to tell you how I killed my wife, and for that I must tell you how I debauched myself.

I killed her before I knew her.
"I killed THE wife when I first tasted sensual joys without love, and then it was that I killed MY wife.

Yes, sir: it is only after having suffered, after having tortured myself, that I have come to understand the root of things, that I have come to understand my crimes.

Thus you will see where and how began the drama that has led me to misfortune.
"It is necessary to go back to my sixteenth year, when I was still at school, and my elder brother a first-year student.