January - 2020

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

Keeping up with the Janeites, Part II

In September, we suspected. We hoped. We crossed our fingers. And now it’s confirmed. In perhaps the least likely household on Planet...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 30, 2020

Last December, the owner of a very trendy new car got into a minor accident on an English roadway. And thus we learned some exciting...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 27, 2020

Fifty-first in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. It’s an occupational hazard of the writing life that once...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 23, 2020

“I have just learnt to love a hyacinth.” “. . . . So much the better. You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 20, 2020

Just when you thought it was safe to put some cookies in the oven, toss a few snowballs, and top your hot chocolate with a dollop of...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 16, 2020

Search engine optimization and web analytics are topics about which I know very little. (OK: nothing.) So when Google sends me its...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 13, 2020

Like all American girls, I loved Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and when I shared it with my daughter many years after my first...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 9, 2020

If only the Austens had invested in Steventon real estate. Back in 1801, as Janeites will recall, the Rev. George Austen moved out of the...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 6, 2020

The year that began yesterday will not bring us any important Jane Austen anniversaries: The bicentenaries of her death and of the...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 2, 2020