Deborah YaffeMay 6, 2021Interrogating an interrogationAmong my many Janeite pet peeves is the caricaturing of Austen fans as prudish ultraconservatives who stick their fingers in their ears...
Deborah YaffeMar 11, 2021Old issues, new questionsFive years ago, I wrote a magazine article about the controversy over Woodrow Wilson’s repugnant racial views – an aspect of the...
Deborah YaffeJul 20, 2020Dining outI don’t know about you, but I miss dinner parties. You remember dinner parties: those occasions on which you gathered with friends –...
Deborah YaffeJul 16, 2020Reckoning with the pastBy now, it’s no surprise to find Jane Austen’s name surfacing in discussions of Britain’s unsavory imperial history: The debate over the...
Deborah YaffeAug 15, 2019CompanionsThirteen years ago, when PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre aired a new adaptation of Jane Eyre, the network offered viewers a chance to buy...
Deborah YaffeJul 4, 2019Free to be. . .On this holiday of freedom from tyranny, including the tyranny of conventional expectations, it seems appropriate to spend a moment...
Deborah YaffeMay 9, 2019Women in blueAmong London’s many delights are the blue plaques that mark buildings associated with historical personages both famous and obscure....
Deborah YaffeApr 8, 2019Jane Austen's first criticFor Janeites, it’s salt rubbed in a wound: the news that scholars will soon be able to inspect a fascinating trove of letters from an...
Deborah YaffeAug 13, 2018Lucky thirteenName the ten most important vegetables! Quick now! Does broccoli outrank kale? How about carrots vs. turnips? Yes, yes, I know they’re...
Deborah YaffeFeb 13, 2017Dweeby DarcyEdward IV, who reigned as king of England for most of the period from 1461-1483, was described by contemporaries as an unusually handsome...
Deborah YaffeAug 8, 2016Austen sleuthingAlthough “Jane Austen Detectives” sounds like the title of a beach book I’d want to read, it’s actually the name of a sixteen-month-old...
Deborah YaffeAug 4, 2016Sharing scholarshipAnd here's the second addition this week to the category of Nifty Web Sites I Only Just Heard About: The 18th-Century Common, “a public...