Jane Austen (1775-1817) is one of the most famous of all English novelists, and today her novels are more popular than ever, with several recently adapted as Hollywood movies. But we do not have many records of what she looked like. For a long time, the only accepted image of Austen was an amateur sketch of an adult Austen made by her sister Cassandra. However recently a professionally painted, full-length portrait of a teenage girl owned by a member of the Austen family has come up for sale. Although the professional painting is not titled Jane Austen, there are good reasons to believe she is the subject.
First, in 1882, several decades after Austen's death, Austen's family gave permission to use the portrait as an illustration in an edition of her letters. Austen's family clearly recognized it as a portrait of the author. So, for over a century now, the Austen family itself has endorsed the claim that the girl in the portrait is Jane Austen.
Second, the face in the portrait clearly resembles the one in Cassandra's sketch, which we know depicts Austen. Though somewhat amateurish, the sketch communicates definite details about Austen's face. Even though the Cassandra sketch is of an adult Jane Austen, the features are still similar to those of the teenage girl in the painting. The eyebrows, nose, mouth, and overall shape of the face are very much like those in the full-length portrait.
Third, although the painting is unsigned and undated, there is evidence that it was painted when Austen was a teenager. The style links it to Ozias Humphrey, a society portrait painter who was the kind of professional the wealthy Austen family would hire. Humphrey was active in the late 1780s and early 1790s, exactly the period when Jane Austen was the age of the girl in the painting.
The reading passage and the lecture are both about a portrait for a teenage girl and whether or not the subject in this painting is Jane Austen. The reading passage argues that it's actually a portrait for Jane Austen. However, the lecturer refutes the evidence discussed in the article.
First, the author claims that Austen's family endorsed this portrait to be used as an illustration in her letters, which, in turn, proves that they identified the girl in the portrait as Jane Austen. Nevertheless, the lecturer supports a different point of view. He mentions that it had been seventy years since the death of Jane Austen when some family members authorized the use of this portrait as if it was for Jane Austen. Accordingly, there is a huge chance that those family members had never seen Jane Austen when she was alive.
Second, the excerpt indicates that the girl in the portrait somehow resembles the sketch painted by Cassandra, Austen's sister. Unfortunately, the speaker clarifies that Austen had so many relatives who might have resembled her and this portrait could have been for one of her relatives. The professor further elaborates that this portrait could specifically be for her niece, Marianne.
Third, the author of the reading postulates that the style in the portrait is a very strong evidence that it's for Jane Austen. The style is linked to Humphrey who was a portrait painter for wealthy families during Austen's time. On the other hand, the lecturer holds that the canvass for the portrait has a stamp of a seller who didn't start to do business in London until Austen was twenty-seven years old, which is much older than the girl in the portrait.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 86, Rule ID: WHETHER[7]
Message: Perhaps you can shorten this phrase to just 'whether'. It is correct though if you mean 'regardless of whether'.
Suggestion: whether
...about a portrait for a teenage girl and whether or not the subject in this painting is Jane Au...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Line 13, column 329, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: didn't
...he portrait has a stamp of a seller who didnt start to do business in London until Au...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
accordingly, actually, first, however, if, nevertheless, second, so, third, as for, on the other hand
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 3.0 5.04856512141 59% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 28.0 22.412803532 125% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 24.0 30.3222958057 79% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1403.0 1373.03311258 102% => OK
No of words: 284.0 270.72406181 105% => OK
Chars per words: 4.94014084507 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.10515524023 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.53073744538 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 146.0 145.348785872 100% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.514084507042 0.540411800872 95% => OK
syllable_count: 424.8 419.366225166 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 1.0 3.25607064018 31% => OK
Article: 11.0 8.23620309051 134% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 21.0 21.2450331126 99% => OK
Sentence length SD: 48.5066944687 49.2860985944 98% => OK
Chars per sentence: 107.923076923 110.228320801 98% => OK
Words per sentence: 21.8461538462 21.698381199 101% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.76923076923 7.06452816374 110% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.154501930749 0.272083759551 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0663407903784 0.0996497079465 67% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0405150455891 0.0662205650399 61% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.105850153532 0.162205337803 65% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0153897336936 0.0443174109184 35% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 12.8 13.3589403974 96% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 58.62 53.8541721854 109% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 10.3 11.0289183223 93% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.37 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.79 8.42419426049 92% => OK
difficult_words: 56.0 63.6247240618 88% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.4 10.498013245 99% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.