On this day in 1814. . .
Forty-seventh in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Jane Austen’s letters, with their unpolished emphasis on...
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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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Deborah Yaffe
- Aug 12, 2019
Austen's pewter
Jane Austen, her brother Henry would have us believe, didn’t care about making money. “She became an authoress entirely from taste and...
Deborah Yaffe
- Aug 1, 2019
Greatest Hits, Part II
As I have pointed out rather often, most recently earlier this week, the Internet is filled with quotes from filmed adaptations of Jane...
Deborah Yaffe
- May 13, 2019
Busting Austen myths
Most Janeites don’t need to hear, yet again, that Jane Austen was not a kindly maiden aunt whose sweet, insubstantial little romance...
Deborah Yaffe
- Apr 11, 2019
On this day in 1805. . .
Forty-third in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. "It is a period, indeed!” Captain Wentworth exclaims to Anne...
Deborah Yaffe
- Apr 1, 2019
CliffsNotes for kiddies
I am all in favor of introducing young people to great literature, even great literature they are probably too young to fully appreciate....
Deborah Yaffe
- Mar 7, 2019
Getting it wrong
Jane Austen, it seems safe to say, is one of the most famous writers who ever lived, especially in English-speaking countries. Yet out...
Deborah Yaffe
- Feb 14, 2019
The dating game
Valentine’s Day, the celebration of lovers, dates back to the Middle Ages. Yet Jane Austen – often described as the mother of the romance...
Deborah Yaffe
- Dec 24, 2018
'Twas the night before Christmas
Tomorrow is Christmas, the day on which a larger-than-life personage employing semi-equine transport suddenly appears in our homes,...
Deborah Yaffe
- Dec 17, 2018
On this day in 1816. . .
Fortieth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. It’s not always easy to tell when Jane Austen, master of irony,...
Deborah Yaffe
- Dec 13, 2018
Desperately seeking romance in Jane Austen
Virginia Woolf famously wrote of Jane Austen that “of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.” Let...
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