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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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Here we go again
The first still-extant screen adaptation of Pride and Prejudice , the MGM movie starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier as Elizabeth...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 24, 2025
On this day in 1816. . .
One hundredth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. As we Janeites never tire of pointing out, Jane Austen...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 21, 2025
In for a penny. . .
Penny Ashton is a New Zealand actor and comedian who has created two Jane Austen-inspired shows: the one-woman Promise & Promiscuity , ...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 17, 2025
Good hair day?
What did Jane Austen look like? As I’ve noted before (for example, here and here ), we can’t be sure. We have only one portrait we know...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 14, 2025
A wrecking ball for Ashe Park House
The material traces of Jane Austen’s life are so scarce that devoted Janeites—or people seeking to profit off Janeite devotion--tend to...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 10, 2025
Picking favorites
When I’m asked which Jane Austen novel is my favorite—and if you write a book about Jane Austen fandom, you will be asked this question...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 7, 2025
Choose wisely
“Name your favorite Jane Austen character”--along with its offshoots (favorite hero, favorite bad boy, Which Jane Austen Heroine Are...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 3, 2025
Badge of honor
Calling all pedantic Janeite killjoys: It’s time for you to proudly proclaim your (our) identity. At long last, the T-shirt is available...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 31, 2025
Bookshelf for sale
At the back of Rebecca Romney’s new book Jane Austen's Bookshelf: A Rare Book Collector's Quest to Find the Women Writers Who Shaped a...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 27, 2025
Reading Jane Austen in a vacuum
We Janeites never tire of pointing out all the qualities that make Austen special. We’re not wrong to do so--few writers are as good as...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 24, 2025
Austen footsteps, Southampton edition
The city of Southampton makes no one’s list of England's top Jane Austen sites. Although she briefly attended school there as a child and...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 20, 2025
Delayed snark
Some five years ago, my local chapter of the Jane Austen Society of North America sponsored a discussion of Jane Austen at Home , the...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 17, 2025
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