Deborah YaffeSep 29, 2022Lucky thirteenThirty-nine years ago, during my first semester of college, I took the train from New Haven to Philadelphia to attend my first Jane...
Deborah YaffeSep 12, 2022Jane Austen in love . . . maybeNine months have passed since we learned the happy news that a cache of priceless books and manuscripts, including two Jane Austen...
Deborah YaffeAug 29, 2022Diving deepWe Janeites like to say that Austen’s novels repay slow and careful perusal, and that every time we reread, we discover something new....
Deborah YaffeAug 11, 2022Still talkingIt’s never a bad time to talk about Persuasion–really, what are you doing that’s more important?--but right now may be an especially good...
Deborah YaffeJul 28, 2022In the starsJane Austen was a Sagittarius. Would she have cared? Or, as a clergyman’s daughter and a pious Anglican, would she have rejected the...
Deborah YaffeJul 11, 2022Janeites in conversation“It is such a happiness when good people get together--and they always do,” Miss Bates exults in chapter 21 of Emma. In context, she is...
Deborah YaffeJun 9, 2022Bonnetfest closeupIf you’re a Janeite who can’t make it to Cincinnati’s Taft Museum of Art this summer – and will therefore miss your chance for an...
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 4, 2022What lies beneathIn popular culture, Jane Austen is the avatar of buttoned-up romance – love stories featuring heroines concealed under long skirts and...