Janeites/Anti-Janeites 2/14

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

False 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 Yaffe

Apr 24, 2023

Heavenly visions

From 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 Yaffe

Feb 23, 2023

Jane Austen, matchmaker

The characters that Teri Roberts and Rachel Walton portrayed in the faux-Regency world of the Austen-themed online role-playing game...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 26, 2023

A Janeite's Janeite passes on

Edith Lank, who died on New Year’s Day at the age of ninety-six, was a Janeite’s Janeite. She read and reread Austen’s novels; began...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 5, 2023

Dinner time

A common Janeite fantasy goes like this: You meet Jane Austen. Naturally, she finds you interesting and delightful. You get her take on,...

Deborah Yaffe

Dec 29, 2022

Sugarplums

As Christmas approaches, the internet has been filling our Janeite stockings with tidbits of Austen-related news: --Ahoy, there: Last...

Deborah Yaffe

Dec 19, 2022

CryptoJane, Part II

Jane Austen’s famous remark about the relative value of tangible and intangible assets–“tho’ I like praise as well as anybody, I like...

Deborah Yaffe

Dec 1, 2022

The pendulum swings

The smashing success of Netflix’s Bridgerton has ushered in a new era of multiracial casting in Regency costume dramas. This is good...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 13, 2022

Ahead of his time

Janeites first discover Jane Austen at different moments in their lives. I’ve talked with people who read her first in a high school or...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 6, 2022

The Austen MBA

We all read Jane Austen for different reasons. (I wrote a whole book about this phenomenon.) Some read her for the lucidity of her...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 3, 2022

Reading Austen in high places

A few months ago, I noted that the British royal family appears to include a critical mass of women who are crazy about Jane Austen. (Or...

Deborah Yaffe

Sep 19, 2022

She plays well at the palace

Seven years ago, we learned that Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall – aka the wife of Prince Charles and future queen consort of England – is a...

Deborah Yaffe

Jun 20, 2022