Deborah YaffeJul 17, 2023(Un)happy childhoodsI suppose I should no longer find it bemusing when false, misleading, or completely unsubstantiated information about Jane Austen’s life...
Deborah YaffeJul 10, 2023Dear diaryLet me start by pointing out that I do understand the concept of clickbait. Really, I do. But still, I’m left breathless at the moxie of...
Deborah YaffeJun 26, 2023On this day in 1808. . . Eighty-sixth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. The letter Jane Austen wrote to her sister, Cassandra,...
Deborah YaffeApr 6, 2023FailuresAs a way to make a living, writing pretty much sucks, as most writers not named James Patterson or Malcolm Gladwell can tell you. So I...
Deborah YaffeJan 30, 2023Tom Lefroy, commitment-phobe?Consider the term “fuckboy”: --“A womanizer; a young man who sleeps with women without any intention of having a relationship with them ....
Deborah YaffeJan 9, 2023On this day in 1801. . .Eighty-second in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. In January 1801, the twenty-five-year-old Jane Austen was...
Deborah YaffeNov 7, 2022SlushToday, it’s called the slush pile: the tottering heap of unsolicited manuscripts that clog the mailboxes—these days, the email boxes—of...
Deborah YaffeOct 10, 2022Expensive thrillsFor Janeites, the Austen First Edition Thrill-o-Meter is calibrated something like this: Biggest Thrill: Austen novel first edition owned...
Deborah YaffeAug 8, 2022Family lettersAs we Janeites know to our sorrow, only 160 of Jane Austen’s letters survive, and some of those are filled with details that mean little...