Fanfic

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

Celebration, by any name

A 250th birthday goes by many names . It can be called a semiquincentennial, a sestercentennial, a quarter millennial--even a...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 2

Janeite grandmother

In this season of brutal political combat, it’s consoling to remember back to a less conflict-ridden past. And so it is that I felt a...

Deborah Yaffe

Dec 5, 2024

Thriller

Are you feeling sad that you won’t be able to join the Jane Austen 250th Birthday festivities in England next year? Fear not! You can...

Deborah Yaffe

Nov 18, 2024

Formulaic

Is there an Austen Formula—a tried-and-true template, created by Jane Austen, that would-be novelists can adapt to their own purposes?...

Deborah Yaffe

Jul 1, 2024

Jane Austen, partner in crime

While much Jane Austen-inspired fiction can be classed as romance, a thriving subset draws on the conventions of the mystery genre....

Deborah Yaffe

Jun 17, 2024

Growth spurt

Back in the 2010s, when I first started reading Jane Austen fanfic, the typical example of the genre was a romance novel, either Regency...

Deborah Yaffe

May 9, 2024

Jane Austen universe(s)

In the world of Jane Austen fanfic--whether on page, stage, or screen--there are, it sometimes seems, no new ideas. Jane Austen with...

Deborah Yaffe

Jul 31, 2023

Represent

Representation is a hot topic in literary circles these days, as publishers reckon (late, slowly, and imperfectly) with their long...

Deborah Yaffe

Jul 3, 2023

The unwritten manuscript

The untimely death last year of the acclaimed historical novelist Hilary Mantel was immediately recognized as a tragic loss for the world...

Deborah Yaffe

May 1, 2023

Mr. Wickham, live

The BBC’s iconic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is known among Janeites by various shorthands: * There’s “the wet-shirt P&P,” for...

Deborah Yaffe

Apr 19, 2021

The Emma Trap

What is the nature of inspiration? How elastic is its definition? How large a distance can stretch between inspiration and inspiree...

Deborah Yaffe

Feb 15, 2021

Coming attractions?

Surely the universe owes us a better year than the last. And for Janeites who enjoy screen adaptations of their favorite author, the...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 28, 2021