Toward the end of his life, the Chevalier de Seingalt (1725−1798) wrote a long memoir recounting his
life and adventures. The Chevalier was a somewhat controversial figure, but since he met many famous
people, including kings and writers, his memoir has become a valuable historical source about European
society in the eighteenth century. However, some critics have raised doubts about the accuracy of the
memoir. They claim that the Chevalier distorted or invented many events in the memoir to make his life
seem more exciting and glamorous than it really was.
For example, in his memoir the Chevalier claims that while living in Switzerland, he was very wealthy, and
it is known that he spent a great deal of money there on parties and gambling. However, evidence has
recently surfaced that the Chevalier borrowed considerable sums of money from a Swiss merchant. Critics
thus argue that if the Chevalier had really been very rich, he would not have needed to borrow money.
Critics are also skeptical about the accuracy of the conversations that the Chevalier records in the memoir
between himself and the famous writer Voltaire. No one doubts that the Chevalier and Voltaire met and
conversed. However, critics complain that the memoir cannot possibly capture these conversations
accurately, because it was written many years after the conversations occurred. Critics point out that it is
impossible to remember exact phrases from extended conversations held many years earlier.
Critics have also questioned the memoir’s account of the Chevalier’s escape from a notorious prison in
Venice, Italy. He claims to have escaped the Venetian prison by using a piece of metal to make a hole in
the ceiling and climbing through the roof. Critics claim that while such a daring escape makes for enjoyable
reading, it is more likely that the Chevalier’s jailers were bribed to free him. They point out that the Chevalier
had a number of politically well-connected friends in Venice who could have offered a bribe.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they respond to the
specific points made in the reading passage.
The text and the lecture offer two contrasting views on the Chevalier Sengalt's memoir. While the text lists the reasons to cast doubt on its authenticity the lecture uses other historical evidence to counter this opinion.
First, the professor refutes the idea presented in the passage that Chevalier's loans corroborate the belief that he was poor. However, the professor says that most of Chevalier's wealth was in the form of property which required time to be converted to cash. Hence, he took the loans only to take care of his spendthrift habits while he was waiting for his property to be converted to liquid wealth.
Next, she says that the recollection of the Chevalier's conversation with Voltaire was based on notes. Although, the text states that it could not have been possible for Chevalier to recall the conversation at the time he wrote the memoir as it happened many years before he wrote it in the memoir.
Yet the professor asserts that the witnesses supported the fact that Chevalier took notes right after his conversation and he referred to them while writing the memoir.
Finally, the professor says that Chevalier was telling the truth about the way he escaped from the Venice prison. While the passage asserts that Chevalier bribed the jailers to be free as he had many influential friends who were well connected to politics and were willing to pay the bribe, she counterargues this by saying there were other powerful people with significant political connections in the jail as well who were not able to get out. Also, she provides a reference to old Venetian documents which contains the information about the replacement of ceiling of Chevalier's cell after he escaped.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-10-02 | Kalyani_tekade_24 | 80 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 1, column 88, Rule ID: SENTENCE_FRAGMENT[1]
Message: “While” at the beginning of a sentence requires a 2nd clause. Maybe a comma, question or exclamation mark is missing, or the sentence is incomplete and should be joined with the following sentence.
...views on the Chevalier Sengalts memoir. While the text lists the reasons to cast doub...
^^^^^
Line 8, column 605, Rule ID: WHITESPACE_RULE
Message: Possible typo: you repeated a whitespace
Suggestion:
...ng of Chevaliers cell after he escaped.
^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, hence, however, if, so, then, well, while
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 13.0 10.4613686534 124% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 4.0 7.30242825607 55% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 31.0 22.412803532 138% => Less pronouns wanted
Preposition: 38.0 30.3222958057 125% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 5.01324503311 160% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1424.0 1373.03311258 104% => OK
No of words: 284.0 270.72406181 105% => OK
Chars per words: 5.01408450704 5.08290768461 99% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.10515524023 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.67190189011 2.5805825403 104% => OK
Unique words: 152.0 145.348785872 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.535211267606 0.540411800872 99% => OK
syllable_count: 432.9 419.366225166 103% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.23620309051 61% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 2.5761589404 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 11.0 13.0662251656 84% => 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: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 63.446209403 49.2860985944 129% => OK
Chars per sentence: 129.454545455 110.228320801 117% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.8181818182 21.698381199 119% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.72727272727 7.06452816374 81% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 4.0 4.33554083885 92% => 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: 0.240754718537 0.272083759551 88% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0999451865168 0.0996497079465 100% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0555742961874 0.0662205650399 84% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.139694388895 0.162205337803 86% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0528034488351 0.0443174109184 119% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.1 13.3589403974 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 54.56 53.8541721854 101% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.9 11.0289183223 108% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.07 12.2367328918 99% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.49 8.42419426049 101% => OK
difficult_words: 65.0 63.6247240618 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
---------------------
Rates: 70 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 21 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.