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 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...
Deborah YaffeDec 5, 2022Treasures of the collectionA year after a priceless nineteenth-century literary collection was rescued from the auction block and donated to public institutions...
Deborah YaffeOct 27, 2022Read all about itLike most writers, Jane Austen was a reader, avidly consuming the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction prose of her day. Her letters offer...
Deborah YaffeSep 15, 2022Broadening the collectionThe last time the pioneering feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft was the subject of a public fundraising effort, the results were...
Deborah YaffeJun 13, 2022Recommended readingTo Janeites – indeed, to anyone who’s read semi-widely and who isn’t V.S. Naipaul – it’s obvious that women are capable of writing great...
Deborah YaffeApr 28, 2022Under the floorboardsWhen I was a little girl, my favorite toy was my dollhouse. I liked setting up tiny roomscapes filled with detailed, perfectly manageable...
Deborah YaffeApr 11, 2022Revising the syllabusIs Jane Austen an essential author? Must all English majors – all readers, even! – get to know her work before they can count themselves...
Deborah YaffeJan 24, 2022Pride and penitentiaryThe white supremacist sympathizer assigned to read Pride and Prejudice will now have enough time to get through all six of Jane Austen’s...
Deborah YaffeJan 10, 2022Pop quizBack in my school days, we eager young grade-grubbers used to trade advice on which teachers marked harshly and which were more...
Deborah YaffeDec 30, 2021Saved!Genuinely good news – a commodity that’s been in short supply this past year – came our way earlier this month, with the announcement...
Deborah YaffeDec 9, 2021Crunch timeKids! Always leaving their homework to the last minute! Last summer, as blog readers will recall, a British judge sentenced a young man...