Turkey makes an appearance in more than one of Jane Austen’s completed novels—and, it turns out, in one of the unfinished ones, as well.   Given the fraught nature of Thanksgiving guest lists, perhaps it’s appropriate that this passage from The Watsons , the novel Austen abandoned around 1805, is also the tale of a guest from hell: Jane Watson, the sister-in-law of heroine Emma Watson. Like Emma ’s Mrs. Elton, Jane Watson is a pretentious social climber masquerading, hilario

Which wine pairs best with Jane Austen’s novels?   As someone whose annual alcohol consumption can be measured in teaspoons, I wouldn’t know. So I was bemused to run across a recent story headlined “ Enjoy The Worlds of Jane Austen with a Glass of Bubbly ,” on a champagne marketing site called—yes—Glass of Bubbly.   According to the site, the perfect pairing for Austen’s novels is “a bottle of Vintage Champagne. . . . rich and complex in flavours and aromas, smooth, creamy an

It’s December 25! Time for everyone’s favorite Christmas tradition: A trip to the movies, followed by a delicious dinner of steamed...

Just a few days ago, I returned from a visit to family in England. In my natural habitat, I’m not much of a tea drinker; absent a sore...

Austen-influenced crafts come in many forms. There are knitting patterns. There are board games. There are tote bags and jewelry and...

Jane Austen apparently liked to eat – “You know how interesting the purchase of a sponge-cake is to me,” she wrote to her sister in June...

One of the many, many reasons I am glad not to live in the time of Jane Austen – right up there with the absence of antibiotics, reliable...

For most people, this past year has been at best pretty bad and at worst utterly tragic. On the bright side, however, the challenge of...

Twenty-five years ago today, the BBC’s beloved adaptation of Pride and Prejudice began airing on UK TV. By the time the show made its way...

I don’t know about you, but I miss dinner parties. You remember dinner parties: those occasions on which you gathered with friends –...

For many of us, coronavirus quarantine has proved to be the perfect moment to reread Jane Austen. (Although, really, is there ever a bad...

Jane Austen was a novelist, not an accountant, therapist, scientist, or priest. But you wouldn’t know it from the array of books...