Deborah YaffeFeb 25, 2021Jane Austen in the age of ZoomA year ago, I was looking forward to my upcoming appearance at Jane Austen Day, a biannual event sponsored by the Eastern Pennsylvania...
Deborah YaffeFeb 8, 2021Among the greatsFor college professors, accustomed to lecturing to captive audiences of sometimes disengaged undergraduates, it’s a badge of honor to...
Deborah YaffeFeb 1, 2021The perfect happiness of the union"You have some news to hear, now you are come back, that will rather surprise you." "Have I?" said he quietly, and looking at her; "of...
Deborah YaffeJan 25, 2021A Janeite goes homeA man whose love for Jane Austen helped sustain him during a brutal ten-month battle with COVID and its aftermath finally returned to his...
Deborah YaffeDec 31, 2020Goodbye at last, 2020A year ago, I confidently predicted a 2020 filled with the usual array of Austen events: “Teas, balls, fairs, festivals, conferences,...
Deborah YaffeNov 5, 2020Good timingThis weekend, time zones are friendly to Janeites with an appetite for online convening. On paper, it looks like you’d have to choose how...
Deborah YaffeOct 28, 2020Down Under AustenFor Janeites, the highlight of this month’s online social calendar was the Jane Austen Society of North America’s first-ever virtual...
Deborah YaffeAug 16, 2020A Janeite recoversEarlier this summer, it looked like COVID would take the life of a seventy-three-year-old British lawyer named Geoff Woolf. During his...
Deborah YaffeJul 12, 2020Passing GoIn case you were wondering how high the bar for Janeite gift-giving could be set, wonder no longer: Josh Jordan, a twenty-nine-year-old...
Deborah YaffeJul 8, 2020Happy birthday, JASA thousand years ago – or, actually, back in January – the big Janeite news of 2020 was shaping up to be the eightieth anniversary of the...
Deborah YaffeJun 7, 2020Being Bennet(t)When I read fanfiction that updates Jane Austen’s stories to contemporary settings, I often find myself exasperated by the names....
Deborah YaffeJun 3, 2020The Austen prescriptionJane Austen’s power to console during times of trauma is an established trope by now: cue mention of how British authorities prescribed...