Deborah YaffeDec 2, 2021Jane and the feathered friendJane Austen assuredly never saw a penguin: According to the Zoological Society of London, it wasn’t until 1865, nearly fifty years after...
Deborah YaffeApr 8, 2021All the JanesJaneites have a curious affinity for images of Our Author – even though, as I’ve noted before, we’ll never really know what she looked...
Deborah YaffeNov 2, 2020Cat personA cheerful story with a political angle—and a Jane Austen twist! On the eve of Election Day here in the stressed-out, locked-down,...
Deborah YaffeSep 17, 2020Cock-a-doodle-dooIn vain have I struggled. It will not do. Even though it bears no relation to anything else going on in Jane Austen World, you must allow...
Deborah YaffeJan 14, 2019Penguin of destinyLiterary critics turn up in the most unexpected places. Last November, the Maryland Zoo, in Baltimore, asked the public whether this...
Deborah YaffeJan 25, 2018Jane Austen, romance novels, and a chihuahuaJane Austen’s relationship to the romance novel is a vexed topic. For every article calling her the founding mother of the genre (or...
Deborah YaffeJan 11, 2018Mr. Darcy, eating out of your handSome years ago, I attended a picnic sponsored by my local branch of the Jane Austen Society of North America, to which a fellow JASNA...
Deborah YaffeOct 2, 2017SOS for Chawton's horsesAlthough the Shire horses of Chawton House Library have been dispersed to new homes, the local campaign to reverse that decision...
Deborah YaffeSep 18, 2017Chawton KremlinologyThe ongoing saga of Chawton House Library’s beloved Shire horses – likely casualties of the Austen site’s cost-cutting campaign – is...