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Journalist and author
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
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Quill and paper
In Sense and Sensibility, as Janeites will recall, Elinor Dashwood and her rival, Lucy Steele, spend a tense evening sparring genteelly...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 30, 2021
Project Austen Runway
A New York bridal-gown designer wants to give away made-to-order, Jane Austen-inspired couture dresses. No one’s interested, I assume. As...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 9, 2021
In the 'hood
The last of the Thanksgiving leftovers have been consumed. Wreaths and tinsel are filling the stores. It must be time to shop for holiday...
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 30, 2020
Color-coding
Better late than never: Although it appeared more than a month ago, I’ve only just stumbled across a cogent and fascinating analysis of...
Deborah Yaffe
May 10, 2020
Emma fashionista
The new feature-film adaptation of Emma opened this past weekend, but not, alas, in my neck of the woods, where we proles must wait until...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 24, 2020
Lydia the leopard
I really should cease being surprised by how indiscriminately purveyors of goods and services slap the name “Jane Austen” onto items with...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 30, 2019
Oh, those clothes. .
The success of the screen adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels has been attributed to many factors: romantic plots, attractive stars,...
Deborah Yaffe
Jul 7, 2019
Free to be. . .
On this holiday of freedom from tyranny, including the tyranny of conventional expectations, it seems appropriate to spend a moment...
Deborah Yaffe
Jul 3, 2019
Window shopping
Fashion – at least in the practical, everyday, what-are-you-wearing-this-morning sense – is not my thing. However, I like looking at...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 22, 2016
Wedding season
Just in case yesterday’s festivities didn’t give you enough of that Valentine’s Day spirit, Biltmore House, the palatial Asheville, N.C.,...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 15, 2016
Recapturing Austen's physicality
Janeites never tire of speculating about Austen’s appearance (see here and here for examples), despite – or perhaps because of – the...
Deborah Yaffe
Jul 12, 2015
The Jane Austen diet plan
We Janeites hail our beloved author as a witty social critic, a source of romantic escapism, a harbinger of a more civilized age, a...
Deborah Yaffe
May 31, 2015
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