The first blog post I ever wrote about Jane Austen appeared here on February 4, 2013 , nearly thirteen years ago. Today’s post is my 1,354 th —and my last.   I’m not wrapping up the blog because Jane Austen no longer makes waves. On the contrary: This next year is already shaping up to deliver the usual onslaught of Austen-related news: * Three new Austen-themed adaptations will hit screens large and small: The BBC’s ten-part series The Other Bennet Sister , based on a Pride

Christmas barely registers in Jane Austen’s novels: Only three of them— Emma , Mansfield Park , and Persuasion —include true Christmas-time scenes.   Still, the holiday comes in for occasional mentions in the other three novels as well, and nowhere more amusingly than in Northanger Abbey , when the insincere and self-absorbed Isabella Thorpe, newly engaged to Catherine Morland’s brother James, recalls the delights of the previous year’s noel:   “You are so like your dear brot

The Jane Austen's Desk online platform seeks crowdfunding to move the project forward in the absence of NEH funding.

On Tuesday, as you may have heard, we celebrated Jane Austen’s 250 th  birthday. Some of us, however, celebrated more officially than others: The governors of at least three U.S. states apparently signed proclamations declaring December 16, 2025, to be “Jane Austen Day.”   I say “apparently” signed because, although these declarations—from the states of Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas—were mentioned in various spots online, I haven’t been able to locate the proclamations on

No one who saw Jane Austen on the first day of her life would have supposed her born to be one of the world’s greatest novelists. Her doting father saw only “another girl, a present plaything for her sister Cassy and a future companion.”   And yet the baby who arrived in the world exactly 250 years ago today—on December 16, 1775—grew up to be a keen observer, a penetrating psychologist, and a peerless prose stylist. It may be her birthday, but it is she who has given us inco

Jane Austen’s momentous 250 th  birthday—spoiler alert: it’s tomorrow!--can be celebrated anywhere, of course, but it must be extra special to celebrate it in a place steeped in authentic Regency history. In other words: Oh, to be in England this week, for events like these:   * Bath: The Jane Austen Festival’s Yuletide Jane Austen Birthday Ball was surely one of the most coveted tickets of the year, and no wonder: The ball was held in the storied Pump Room , a prime gatheri

Every author dreams of having her work spotlighted by a celebrity with a book club, an online following, and a guaranteed power to pump up sales. Reese Witherspoon , anyone? Barack Obama’s annual best-of list , maybe? Oprah Winfrey (oh, please, dear Lord)?   Jane Austen got the pre-Internet version of this boost when the Prince Regent asked/commanded her to dedicate Emma to him, and today she hardly needs the extra publicity—her books are still selling well , 250 years after

In her lifetime, Jane Austen may not have been as famous and revered as she deserved to be. But in death, she’s making up for lost time.   Case in point: The BBC’s talk-radio programming schedule for the next two weeks, which looks, if you squint, like All Austen, All The Time .   The soft opening took place back in early November, with the Radio 4 broadcast of a new two-part adaptation of Northanger Abbey.  Over the weekend, the channel’s digital counterpart, Radio 4Extra, a

How famous is Jane Austen? Let us assess the evidence: the screen adaptations, the TikTok mentions, the T-shirts and fridge magnets and tote bags.   Or we could take a trip to the Grolier Club in New York City, a private club dedicated to books and the book arts, where a free exhibit titled “ Paper Jane: 250 Years of Austen ” is opening today.   The exhibit, which runs through Valentine’s Day, includes “a kaleidoscopic mix of 110 objects, including rare first editions, manusc