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 and lecture are both about a painting of a famous English novelist, Jane Austen. The reading claims that the full-length portrait was her as a teenager because of three reasons. However, the professor challenges all these explanations in the reading. He is of the opinion that these claims are faulty.
First, the reading clearly states that Austen's family certified the picture was her to publish as an illustration in an edition for her letters. However, according to the professor, one flaw of this argument was, this authorized publication was released 70 years after Jane Austen's death. So the family members who asserted the painting as her own had never seen her as a teenager.
Second, the reading says that the sketch accurately resembles all the features of Austen's face like her accepted painting by her sister Cassandra. On the contrary, the lecturer thinks that this sketch is very well been her relative's. In addition, he argues that the novelist has had an extended family and some of her relatives look like Austen. He mentions two exact names of her niece (Mary and Cambia) might be in the portrait of one that said to be Austen's.
Last, the evidence of Humphery style in the sketch is not conclusive that the portrait was Jane's. Professor points out that a stamp on the back of the canvas was sold by William Legg in London. However, it is estimated that he was not selling canvas at the time when the portrait was painted. He started the business when Jane Austen was 27 years old. This proof clearly contradicts the idea in the reading.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 451, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...e in the portrait of one that said to be Austens. Last, the evidence of Humphe...
^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
first, however, if, look, second, so, well, in addition, on the contrary
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 18.0 10.4613686534 172% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 32.0 22.412803532 143% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 30.0 30.3222958057 99% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1305.0 1373.03311258 95% => OK
No of words: 271.0 270.72406181 100% => OK
Chars per words: 4.81549815498 5.08290768461 95% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.05734859645 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.52501543465 2.5805825403 98% => OK
Unique words: 145.0 145.348785872 100% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.535055350554 0.540411800872 99% => OK
syllable_count: 394.2 419.366225166 94% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 7.0 3.25607064018 215% => Less pronouns wanted as sentence beginning.
Article: 7.0 8.23620309051 85% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 1.25165562914 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 16.0 21.2450331126 75% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 29.0542999184 49.2860985944 59% => The essay contains lots of sentences with the similar length. More sentence varieties wanted.
Chars per sentence: 81.5625 110.228320801 74% => OK
Words per sentence: 16.9375 21.698381199 78% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.5 7.06452816374 64% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 5.0 4.33554083885 115% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 4.45695364238 67% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 8.0 4.27373068433 187% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.141124741205 0.272083759551 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0485818610346 0.0996497079465 49% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0459673457258 0.0662205650399 69% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0914118815967 0.162205337803 56% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0389412679569 0.0443174109184 88% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 9.7 13.3589403974 73% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 63.7 53.8541721854 118% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.4 11.0289183223 76% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.38 12.2367328918 85% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.28 8.42419426049 98% => OK
difficult_words: 66.0 63.6247240618 104% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 8.0 10.7273730684 75% => OK
gunning_fog: 8.4 10.498013245 80% => OK
text_standard: 8.0 11.2008830022 71% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 75.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.5 Out of 30
---------------------
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.