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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
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Merch
Last month, I had occasion to call myself “a pedantic Janeite killjoy.” (And not for the first time, as I was reminded in the comments...
Deborah Yaffe
Jul 8, 2024
In for the quill
Once upon a time, the hottest thing in video gaming was the Nintendo Entertainment System. Back then, the pixelated graphics necessitated...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 22, 2024
If 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 Yaffe
Oct 26, 2023
Coveted rarities
As regular blog readers know, I have a not-so-secret hankering for Jane Austen first editions, along with nothing like enough money to...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 21, 2023
Wallpapering
My husband, an aspiring rock god, owns a T-shirt reading, “How many guitars do I really need? Just one more.” Many Janeites harbor...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 14, 2023
Father knows best
Although Jane Austen’s novels never commanded huge print runs – the biggest, for Emma, totaled only two thousand copies -- Austen first...
Deborah Yaffe
Dec 22, 2022
Expensive thrills
For Janeites, the Austen First Edition Thrill-o-Meter is calibrated something like this: Biggest Thrill: Austen novel first edition owned...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 10, 2022
Regency striptease
When 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 Yaffe
Jun 23, 2022
Many happy returns
The return of spring brings many pleasures. Flowers! Baby birds! And, of course, a new Jane Austen bobblehead! Back in 2020, the North...
Deborah Yaffe
May 23, 2022
Jane and the feathered friend
Jane Austen assuredly never saw a penguin: According to the Zoological Society of London, it wasn’t until 1865, nearly fifty years after...
Deborah Yaffe
Dec 2, 2021
Pricey, and priceless
It’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 Yaffe
Sep 20, 2021
Austens with a pedigree
Owning first editions of Jane Austen’s novels – ideally, as I’ve noted before, of all Jane Austen’s novels – must be . . . pretty cool....
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 13, 2021
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