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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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Marital gift-giving
As a card-carrying Wife, I feel I must call my Husband’s attention to a recent feature in Town & Country magazine, “ 40 of the Best...
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 16, 2024
Beyond the quill
Jane Austen wrote with a quill pen. Most of us would agree that she managed pretty well with that particular technology. So just imagine...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 8, 2024
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
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