Esther Summerson

From Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Esther narrates half the novel in first person; introduced as an illegitimate child raised in shame by a godmother who tells her her birthday should have been her death-day.
Chapter 3 (A Progress)

Esther begins her narrative: 'I have a great deal of difficulty in beginning to write my portion of these pages, for I know I am not clever.' Her godmother's cruel pronouncement: 'It would have been far better, little Esther, that you had had no birthday; that you had never been born!'

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