Deborah Yaffe9 hours agoDress-up for grownupsAs blog readers will recall, the Library of Congress hosted its first-ever Literary Costume Ball earlier this month. Since then, I’ve...
Deborah Yaffe4 days agoAusten's not-so-secret LondonThe biographical record suggests that Jane Austen was essentially a country girl, much happier during the many years she spent in rural...
Deborah YaffeSep 18On this day in 1796. . . Eighty-eighth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. The British have a well-documented penchant for discussing...
Deborah YaffeSep 14Updating the syllabusIn the bad old days of pre-1980s academia, you could major in English literature and never be assigned a novel by Jane Austen—or so I’ve...
Deborah YaffeSep 11Tok prizeIn case you find yourself worried that Kids These Days just aren’t what they used to be—in other words, what we used to be—here’s some...
Deborah YaffeSep 7Icing on the cakeIt’s turning into a self-promoting kind of week. After taking a bow on Monday for my small contribution to the ginormous task of...
Deborah YaffeSep 4Victory lapLess than two weeks ago, apropos of my latest effort to stamp out the online plague of fake Jane Austen quotes, I wrote, “I like to...
Deborah YaffeAug 31Calling all bookish cosplayersQuick! Waste no time! You have until today at noon (US Eastern) to enter the lottery for free tickets to the Library of Congress’...
Deborah YaffeAug 28Austen the agreeableAsk Janeites about their favorite author’s political and social views, and you’ll often hear arguments that boil down to this: Jane...
Deborah YaffeAug 24Sourcing and citationEarlier this month, a man from the Maryland suburbs sent a letter to the Washington Post. “When I was reading Colbert I. King’s July 29...
Deborah YaffeAug 21Coveted raritiesAs regular blog readers know, I have a not-so-secret hankering for Jane Austen first editions, along with nothing like enough money to...
Deborah YaffeAug 17Testing, testingIn spring 2022, the right-wing British press ginned up a storm of outrage over the claim that a Scottish university had dropped Jane...