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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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On 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 Yaffe
Jun 26, 2023
Text and subtext
These days, some thirty years after the literary critic Edward Said first offered a post-colonial reading of Mansfield Park, the idea...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 22, 2023
Using up the leftovers
Before leaving on vacation, I always try to clean out my refrigerator—no point in coming home to sour milk and moldy vegetables. Since I...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 19, 2023
Writer's writer
Virginia Woolf famously remarked that “of all great writers [Jane Austen] is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.”...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 15, 2023
Edward Knight, publican?
Edward Knight, Jane Austen’s third-oldest brother, was a husband, a father, a landowner, and the man who provided one of England’s...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 12, 2023
Eliza's harp
Jane Austen’s extended family was largely composed of respectable clergymen, naval officers, and landowners, along with their equally...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 8, 2023
Cracking Easter eggs
Back in April, when a (supposed) first edition of Sense and Sensibility made a cameo appearance in the Apple soccer comedy Ted Lasso,...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 5, 2023
Death of an unabashed Janeite
Martin Amis’ death last month at the age of seventy-three didn’t hit me as hard as it did the legions of bookish lads who fell for his...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 1, 2023
On this day in 1811. . .
Eighty-fifth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Nowadays, when a new acquaintance turns out to be the...
Deborah Yaffe
May 29, 2023
How P&P came to be
It’s a great time for programming at Jane Austen’s House, the cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where Austen wrote or revised all six of her...
Deborah Yaffe
May 25, 2023
Listening pleasure
It’s been a sadly long time since I strolled through the garden at Jane Austen’s House, the cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where Austen...
Deborah Yaffe
May 22, 2023
Polite confusion
Titles can’t be copyrighted, but usually, this isn’t a problem: No one is likely to mistake a classic Victorian novel for a 1970s boxing...
Deborah Yaffe
May 18, 2023
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