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 claims that there is the only accepted image of Jane Austen, one of the most famous English novelist, which was painted by her sister. But lately a professionally painted portrait of Jane has been introduced by her family for sale. However, the lecturer finds all ideas dubious and presents some evidences to refute them all.
First, the author argues that her family several decades after her death, gave a permission to use the portrait in an edition of her letters. Conversely, the lecturer brings up the idea that after 70 years of her death, the portrait was authorized for use in the letters’ publication and actually nobody of her family members had not seen her themselves.
Furthermore, the reading passage holds the view that the face in the portrait resembles the one in Cassandra's sketch, Jane's sister. On the contrary, the professor underlies the fact that this portrait belongs to Jane's distant niece called, Mary Anne Campain, because t Jane’s family was very large and had got a lot of girls which could have resembled to Jane.
Finally, the reading asserts that this portrait was painted by Ozias Humphrey, a society portrait painter, when Jane was a teenager, although it has not any sign and date. In contrast, the speaker dismisses the issue due to the fact that there is a stamp on the back of the blank canvas which was sold by William Leg, and evidences show that during this period, Jane was 27 years old and was not a teenager, and William Leg had not started the sale of canvases in London yet.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, but, conversely, finally, first, furthermore, however, so, in contrast, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 11.0 10.4613686534 105% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 7.30242825607 123% => OK
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 30.0 30.3222958057 99% => OK
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1285.0 1373.03311258 94% => OK
No of words: 267.0 270.72406181 99% => OK
Chars per words: 4.8127340824 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.04229324003 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.50960924503 2.5805825403 97% => OK
Unique words: 148.0 145.348785872 102% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.554307116105 0.540411800872 103% => OK
syllable_count: 390.6 419.366225166 93% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 0.0 3.25607064018 0% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 3.0 1.51434878587 198% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 13.0662251656 69% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 29.0 21.2450331126 137% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 65.1586856911 49.2860985944 132% => OK
Chars per sentence: 142.777777778 110.228320801 130% => OK
Words per sentence: 29.6666666667 21.698381199 137% => OK
Discourse Markers: 10.7777777778 7.06452816374 153% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 1.0 4.33554083885 23% => More positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 5.0 4.27373068433 117% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.130189985094 0.272083759551 48% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.06603695168 0.0996497079465 66% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0438938910482 0.0662205650399 66% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0883034197276 0.162205337803 54% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0563532106371 0.0443174109184 127% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.1 13.3589403974 121% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 50.5 53.8541721854 94% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.4 11.0289183223 121% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.21 12.2367328918 92% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.74 8.42419426049 104% => OK
difficult_words: 62.0 63.6247240618 97% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 11.0 10.7273730684 103% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.6 10.498013245 130% => OK
text_standard: 14.0 11.2008830022 125% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 85.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 25.5 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.