Deborah Yaffe7 days agoJaneite grandmotherIn 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 YaffeMay 30Craving the miseryFive years ago, the British journalist Tanya Gold wrote a whole article about how much she dislikes Jane Austen. Now, in an article about...
Deborah YaffeApr 25Happy (early) anniversaryThe years 2011-2018 saw a host of important Jane Austen bicentenaries, both happy and sad --the 200th anniversaries of the publications...
Deborah YaffeApr 22SnoozeEarlier this year, I had the occasion (read: an excuse) to rewatch several of the feature-film adaptations of Emma. I reconfirmed the...
Deborah YaffeMar 7Janeite on the Potomac, Part IIIOut here in the ‘burbs, our government appears to be a playground for the pompous, the sycophantic, the whiny, the treacherous, and the...
Deborah YaffeDec 11, 2023Girly stuffMy husband likes to read. But the books he picks! All those violent Nordic thrillers! All those biographies of rock musicians! All those...
Deborah YaffeNov 27, 2023Short and sweetFellow novelists do not invariably appreciate Jane Austen—looking at you, Charlotte Brontë!—but it’s always a pleasure when they do. And...
Deborah YaffeJun 15, 2023Writer's writerVirginia Woolf famously remarked that “of all great writers [Jane Austen] is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.”...
Deborah YaffeJun 1, 2023Death of an unabashed JaneiteMartin Amis’ death last month at the age of seventy-three didn’t hit me as hard as it did the legions of bookish lads who fell for his...
Deborah YaffeApr 24, 2023False advertising?Like many Janeites, I know scattered bits of Austen by heart. I can proclaim the first sentences of Pride and Prejudice and Emma, recite...
Deborah YaffeFeb 23, 2023Heavenly visionsFrom time to time, my Google alert brings me word of Janeites I’ll never get to meet--fellow travelers who have passed on, leaving behind...
Deborah YaffeJan 26, 2023Jane Austen, matchmakerThe characters that Teri Roberts and Rachel Walton portrayed in the faux-Regency world of the Austen-themed online role-playing game...