In life, Jane Austen’s royal connections were minimal. As Janeites will remember, the Prince Regent, later George IV, was a fan of her work. In 1815, a chance encounter scored Austen a private tour of the PR’s London residence, hosted by his librarian, and along the way, she received offer-you-can’t-refuse “permission” to dedicate Emma  to the royal personage. She complied. And that was the sum total of her close encounters with crowned heads.   Posthumously, however, Austen

As we approach the last third of this Austen 250 year, the torrent of anniversary-related events shows no sign of abating—especially in...

Those of us who live within striking distance of New York City have another five weeks in which to catch the Morgan Library & Museum’s...

Fifty years ago, the ardent Janeite collector Alberta Burke--whose husband, Henry, would go on to co-found the Jane Austen Society of...

Exactly 250 years ago, England saw the birth of a great artist whose innovations forever changed our culture.   I speak, of course, of...

Cassandra Austen’s family considered her a skilled artist, but for most Janeites, her claim to artistic fame rests, uneasily, on a single...

Jane Austen’s travelling writing desk , often described as the eighteenth-century equivalent of a laptop, is usually on display at the...

I still remember the first time I watched the BBC’s iconic 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice .   At the time, my husband and I lived...

A 250th birthday goes by many names . It can be called a semiquincentennial, a sestercentennial, a quarter millennial--even a...

In these days of standardized computer fonts and software-assisted editing, one writer’s manuscript probably looks much like another’s....

A few months ago, I noted with surprise that I was eagerly anticipating my next visit to a place I often describe as the most boring...

If next year’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth has an epicenter, it would surely be Jane Austen’s House , the...