Deborah YaffeAug 30, 2018P&P on the blockOnce again, it’s time to play “If I Were a Rich Janeite.” (Cue klezmer music.) The British auctioneer Bonhams has announced that, later...
Deborah YaffeAug 27, 2018Retracing Louisa's stepsJane Austen’s characters and situations feel so real to us that it’s easy to overlook the fact that many of her stories are set in...
Deborah YaffeAug 23, 2018On this day in 1796. . .Thirty-sixth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. The young Jane Austen was a voracious reader. We know this...
Deborah YaffeAug 20, 2018Collecting the uncollectedFifteen years ago, Silicon Valley gazillionaire and Janeite Sandy Lerner opened Chawton House, a research library dedicated to the...
Deborah YaffeAug 16, 2018Death of an anti-JaneiteThe death last week of Nobel Prize-winning author V.S. Naipaul prompted the customary chorus of praise for his writing, as well as the...
Deborah YaffeAug 13, 2018Lucky thirteenName the ten most important vegetables! Quick now! Does broccoli outrank kale? How about carrots vs. turnips? Yes, yes, I know they’re...
Deborah YaffeAug 9, 2018Fascinating PhiladelphiaJane Austen’s paternal aunt Philadelphia Austen Hancock (1730-92) is one of the most fascinating and understudied characters in the...
Deborah YaffeAug 6, 2018Death of an Austen descendantThanks to her four reproductively prolific brothers – James, Edward, Frank, and Charles produced an impressive total of thirty-three sons...
Deborah YaffeAug 2, 2018International (mis)understandingWith their film adaptations and their fanfics and their Austen societies, residents of the Indian subcontinent seem to love Jane Austen...