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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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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
2
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
2
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
2
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
0
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
0
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
0
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
0
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 25, 2019
0
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
0
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
0
On this day in 1814. . .
Twenty-eighth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Only six of Jane Austen’s letters to her oldest niece,...
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 20, 2017
0
On this day in 1817. . .
Twenty-first in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Jane Austen: realist or romantic? Cynic or softie? You’ll...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 13, 2017
0
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