Deborah YaffeOct 26If the shoe fits. . . The annual general meeting of the Jane Austen Society of North America is coming up next week in Denver, and with it that age-old...
Deborah YaffeAug 21Coveted raritiesAs regular blog readers know, I have a not-so-secret hankering for Jane Austen first editions, along with nothing like enough money to...
Deborah YaffeAug 14WallpaperingMy husband, an aspiring rock god, owns a T-shirt reading, “How many guitars do I really need? Just one more.” Many Janeites harbor...
Deborah YaffeDec 22, 2022Father knows bestAlthough Jane Austen’s novels never commanded huge print runs – the biggest, for Emma, totaled only two thousand copies -- Austen first...
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 YaffeJun 23, 2022Regency stripteaseWhen I was a kid, I – or perhaps my sister -- owned a novelty pen bearing an image of Botticelli’s Venus in a bathing suit. (Or was it a...
Deborah YaffeMay 23, 2022Many happy returnsThe return of spring brings many pleasures. Flowers! Baby birds! And, of course, a new Jane Austen bobblehead! Back in 2020, the North...
Deborah YaffeDec 2, 2021Jane and the feathered friendJane Austen assuredly never saw a penguin: According to the Zoological Society of London, it wasn’t until 1865, nearly fifty years after...
Deborah YaffeSep 20, 2021Pricey, and pricelessIt’s always nice to know that other people value Our Jane the way we do. Like, value her in dollars. Last week, as blog readers will...
Deborah YaffeSep 13, 2021Austens with a pedigreeOwning first editions of Jane Austen’s novels – ideally, as I’ve noted before, of all Jane Austen’s novels – must be . . . pretty cool....
Deborah YaffeAug 2, 2021Another side of AustenJane Austen’s silhouette – or, at least, a silhouette that has come to be identified with her – is ubiquitous. Despite its uncertain...
Deborah YaffeApr 8, 2021All the JanesJaneites have a curious affinity for images of Our Author – even though, as I’ve noted before, we’ll never really know what she looked...