top of page
Journalist and author
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
Search
The other talented Austen sister
Cassandra Austen’s family considered her a skilled artist, but for most Janeites, her claim to artistic fame rests, uneasily, on a single...
Deborah Yaffe
3 days ago
0
On this day in 1816. . .
One hundredth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. As we Janeites never tire of pointing out, Jane Austen...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 21
2
Good hair day?
What did Jane Austen look like? As I’ve noted before (for example, here and here ), we can’t be sure. We have only one portrait we know...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 14
2
Matters of faith
What were the precise contours of Jane Austen’s religious faith? It’s an open question, given the slenderness of the evidence: some stray...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 27
0
Clearing the backlog
It’s been a grand total of four weeks since I last reported on Jane Austen-related misinformation/foolishness on the internet. And...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 24
0
G.I. Jane
Nothing depresses my spirits more quickly than an article promising to reveal Surprising Facts About Jane Austen. What follows—whether...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 27
4
Celebration, by any name
A 250th birthday goes by many names . It can be called a semiquincentennial, a sestercentennial, a quarter millennial--even a...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 2
2
Celebrating significance
At my synagogue, members sometimes engage in public religious rituals to mark what we discreetly call “significant birthdays”--in other...
Deborah Yaffe
Dec 16, 2024
0
On this day in 1798. . .
Ninety-eighth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Mary Lloyd was a friend of Jane and Cassandra Austen...
Deborah Yaffe
Dec 2, 2024
2
Jane Austen studied here
Jane Austen’s formal education was brief. Between the ages of seven and ten, she spent a little over two years attending two different...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 28, 2024
0
Center of celebration
If next year’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth has an epicenter, it would surely be Jane Austen’s House , the...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 24, 2024
0
Desk set
The celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth won’t officially kick off until next year, but that isn’t stopping the...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 17, 2024
0
bottom of page