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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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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, 2025
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, 2025
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, 2025
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, 2025
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
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