October - 2019

The Line of Thought

. . . to dream over books and loiter at street corners and let the line of thought dip deep into the stream.

--Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Lydia the leopard

I really should cease being surprised by how indiscriminately purveyors of goods and services slap the name “Jane Austen” onto items with...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 31, 2019

Jane Austen’s work is, of course, a priceless gift to world culture. But she also pays some more quantifiable dividends, as the latest...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 28, 2019

Forty-eighth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. When Jane Austen sat down to write a letter to her sister,...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 24, 2019

Once again, it’s time to cue a chorus of “If I Were A Rich Janeite”: another Austen artifact is on the market, set to be auctioned on...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 21, 2019

Last month, as blog readers will recall, we jointly pondered a Jane Austen Christmas mystery: why a made-for-TV movie named Sense,...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 17, 2019

We Janeites may love Austen’s heroes and heroines, but it’s her secondary characters who make us laugh out loud. Fanny Dashwood’s...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 14, 2019

In David Lodge’s classic 1975 academic novel Changing Places, the English-professor characters discuss a game of intellectual chicken...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 10, 2019

I recognize that not everyone craves another Jane Austen-themed screen drama. Some may have balked at the all! sex! all! the! time! hype...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 7, 2019

It’s that time again, Janeites: The Jane Austen Society of North America is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) over the next four...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 3, 2019