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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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Putting it on
Seldom do I appreciate zippers more than when I’ve just watched actors in Regency costume recreate the rituals of Jane Austen-era...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 13, 2025
May flowers
I began this post intending to convey some news eagerly awaited by Janeites who, like me, will see just about any movie that claims an...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 10, 2025
Dancing through the library
Universities across the country are confronting declining enrollments in humanities fields such as history, literature, and philosophy....
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 6, 2025
P&P on a budget
These days, it’s hard not to despair at the state of the world. But all is not lost: You can go online and find a guy lip-syncing his way...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 3, 2025
Matters of faith
What were the precise contours of Jane Austen’s religious faith? It’s an open question, given the slenderness of the evidence: some stray...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 27, 2025
Clearing the backlog
It’s been a grand total of four weeks since I last reported on Jane Austen-related misinformation/foolishness on the internet. And...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 24, 2025
Pemberley on the wall
When Elizabeth Bennet visits Pemberley, she admires the furniture, the paintings, and the view from the windows. Apparently, however, she...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 20, 2025
Tunes
“To be quite honest, I do not think I can live without something of a musical society,” the newlywed Mrs. Elton reports telling her...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 17, 2025
On foot, part II
If you missed the Autumn Walking Festival in Alton, England , next door to the Hampshire village where Jane Austen spent the last eight...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 13, 2025
Catering to the kids
Do Kids These Days need to be coaxed into picking up a book? What with their new-fangled BookTok and #bookstagram, they seem to be doing...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 10, 2025
Treasure trove
Jane Austen’s travelling writing desk , often described as the eighteenth-century equivalent of a laptop, is usually on display at the...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 6, 2025
Branding exercise
A few weeks ago, I ran across a 2011 article in which the wonderful Scottish novelist Ali Smith explained why she seldom grants...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 3, 2025
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