/karen/

You too can write like Jane Austen

Monday, 31 October, 2005

Jane Austen lived at an epoch without typewriters, when people were strictly trained to adopt a conventional style of handwriting. I strongly suspect that, left to herself, she would have done what graphologists—and font-makers—hate most, e.g. flattened out her words in a long wavy scrawl. Yet legibility had to be (and was indeed) a chief concern of hers. So she is rather closely following the Bickham model, as well as given to bettering, e.g. to rework on perusal those of her letters that don't look quite identifiable to her. This is best observed with the x, which tends from the first to be her most illegible letter, shrinking occasionally to a mere knot in the word, with a tiny sharp edge to it. Time and again, she has re-x-ed it, covering it with an unmistakable, spelling x.

(Source. Download font. Via Neil.)

Posted in: Quotes
star

Disqus comments

Other comments

Hi Karen….

erm… has ben’s blog really disappeared?

Posted by Joanna on 31 October, 2005 12:50 PM

Interesting, isn’t it? I always found I did better when I handwrote essays in high school, because I didn’t just “blab” on the way I can because I type so fast…

But writing my current essay (which I am in the process of procrastinating from whilst I comment on your blog) would be HORRENDOUS if I didn’t have a word processor. Hmmm…..

Ben’s doing something mysterious ... so mysterious, he hasn’t shared it with me.

ooh, sounds… mysterious…

Posted by Joanna on 01 November, 2005 9:26 PM


Current:

Bible: Isaiah (ESV) 28/09/2010

seen: Tropic Thunder 26/09/2010

seen: The Life of Mammals 24/09/2010

seen: What a Girl Wants 19/09/2010

seen: Jerry Maguire 19/09/2010

seen: The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 06/09/2010

seen: Tomorrow Never Dies 05/09/2010

seen: Nanny McPhee 28/08/2010

read: Mercury (Hope Larson) 27/08/2010

read: Spellcheckers Vol 1 (Jamie S Rich, Nicolas Hitori de, Joelle Jones) 16/08/2010

read: Solipsistic Pop Vol 2 (Solipsistic Pop) 16/08/2010

read: Chiggers (Hope Larson) 15/08/2010

seen: Josie and the Pussycats 14/08/2010

seen: Mr & Mrs Smith 14/08/2010

seen: Step Up 2 13/08/2010

Blinks:

How to recalibrate the home button on your iPhone.

Unsolicited manuscripts accepted by Pan Macmillan with certain conditions.

Thought Balloon is a group blog in which the writers tackle a new theme every week? month? with one-page scripts. This URL is for their Phonogram ones.

How to sew a zipper on a knitted garment.

Issues organised by tale.

Online magazine that publishes fairy tales that are not reworkings of old tales.

Journal that publishes fairy tale writing.

Feeds

Social media