Emma | DeborahYaffe.com 3/9

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

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

False advertising?

Like many Janeites, I know scattered bits of Austen by heart. I can proclaim the first sentences of Pride and Prejudice and Emma, recite...

Deborah Yaffe

Apr 24, 2023

Writing women

As a writer who is also a fan of period drama, I pay attention to the screenwriting credits on my favorite literary-minded TV...

Deborah Yaffe

Mar 6, 2023

Alumni reunions

Over the holidays, my family settled in for a screening of that sublime romcom Notting Hill. When the movie ended (“I’m just a girl,...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 12, 2023

Passages

The years 1995-96 yielded a bumper crop of filmed versions of Jane Austen’s novels, designed for both big and small screens. The...

Deborah Yaffe

Nov 14, 2022

Scary monsters

Happy Halloween, Janeites! Although Austen wrote no scenes of trick-or-treating, pumpkin-carving, or gorging on candy corn, she certainly...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 31, 2022

Snooze

People who hate Jane Austen – yes, such benighted folks do exist – sometimes claim that she is so-o-o boring that she causes eyelids to...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 17, 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

Laying the table

From time to time, a particular news item brings a snippet of Jane Austen’s wisdom forcibly to mind – such a snippet as, say, “One half...

Deborah Yaffe

Sep 8, 2022

Thin gruel

Early last Tuesday morning, I opened up my phone to Wordle, the now-famous daily word-finding puzzle, and typed my usual starting guess:...

Deborah Yaffe

Aug 22, 2022

What lies beneath

In popular culture, Jane Austen is the avatar of buttoned-up romance – love stories featuring heroines concealed under long skirts and...

Deborah Yaffe

Apr 4, 2022

Mouthwatering

Austen-influenced crafts come in many forms. There are knitting patterns. There are board games. There are tote bags and jewelry and...

Deborah Yaffe

Feb 3, 2022