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Composite sketches of literary characters

posted by Jason Kottke   Feb 10, 2012

The Composites blog takes descriptions of literary characters and runs them through police composite sketch software to produce composite sketches. This is Humbert Humbert from Nabokov's Lolita:

Humbert Humbert

Gloomy good looks...Clean-cut jaw, muscular hand, deep sonorous voice...broad shoulder...I was, and still am, despite mes malheurs, an exceptionally handsome male; slow-moving, tall, with soft dark hair and a gloomy but all the more seductive cast of demeanor.

And here's Emma Bovary from Flaubert's Madame Bovary:

Emmy Bovary

Her eyelids seemed chiseled expressly for her long amorous looks in which the pupil disappeared, while a strong inspiration expanded her delicate nostrils and raised the fleshy corner of her lips, shaded in the light by a little black down.

This is one of those "why didn't I think of this?" projects...well done. (via ★timcarmody)