Fanny Knight | DeborahYaffe.com

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

On this day in 1808. . .

One hundred and fourth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Jane Austen, it seems, took a rather jaundiced...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 2

Who's counting?

It’s fair to say that Jane Austen was a prolific letter-writer. Deirdre Le Faye, who edited the standard edition of Austen’s...

Deborah Yaffe

Sep 1

Dear diary

More than two centuries ago, Jane Austen’s older brother Edward Knight decided to get his Kent mansion painted. As anyone who’s endured...

Deborah Yaffe

May 15

On this day in 1801. . .

One hundred and first in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. How improper were Jane Austen’s letters? By...

Deborah Yaffe

May 5

On this day in 1808. . .

Ninety-sixth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Janeites do not always take Jane Austen at her word when it...

Deborah Yaffe

Oct 7, 2024

What remains

Two hundred and seven years ago today, Jane Austen died in Winchester, England, at the age of forty-one. It’s easy to forget how...

Deborah Yaffe

Jul 18, 2024

On this day in 1806. . .

Eighty-seventh in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. I’ve noted before that, as a poet, Jane Austen was a great...

Deborah Yaffe

Jul 24, 2023

On this day in 1813. . .

Sixty-seventh in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen’s letters. Nostalgia for Jane Austen’s era has always struck me as...

Deborah Yaffe

Sep 16, 2021

On this day in 1817. . .

Fifty-second in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. It’s no secret that Jane Austen held a jaundiced view of the...

Deborah Yaffe

Feb 20, 2020

On this day in 1817. . .

Forty-second in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Those of us who feel strongly about books sometimes subject...

Deborah Yaffe

Mar 24, 2019

Family album

The Janeite world is a-twitter (and a-Twitter) this week over the serendipitous discovery of a Victorian photo album filled with pictures...

Deborah Yaffe

Jan 17, 2019

Provender, Austen, and the tsar

Pity the poor aristocrat. Your stately home is decaying, your heating bill is through the (leaky) roof, and you lack the millions...

Deborah Yaffe

Nov 30, 2017