top of page

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
Search


Drinking game
This fall and winter, every Janeite workweek starts with “Austen Monday”—the evening on which the Rosenbach, Philadelphia’s museum and...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 20, 2022


Raising Jane(ites)
Long ago, I danced at a JASNA ball with a twelve-year-old girl who, when I asked if she was a Janeite, told me that she had “been raised...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 19, 2021


Jane in the time of coronavirus
For Austen fans everywhere, it’s a burning question: WWJD (What Would Jane Do) in the time of coronavirus quarantine? Luckily, we now...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 26, 2020


Friends
Although Jane Austen is a quintessentially British writer, her admirers in North America are legion. Indeed, the Jane Austen Society of...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 17, 2019


In Edward's library
In September 1813, Jane Austen wrote to her sister, Cassandra, from their brother Edward’s library at Godmersham Park in Kent. As regular...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 22, 2018


On this day in 1813. . .
Thirty-third in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Although Jane Austen was, famously, not a big fan of Bath,...
Deborah Yaffe
May 24, 2018


Herding sheep
Somewhere out there, lost lambs are baa-ing to return to the fold, and a group of scholarly Bo Peeps is ready to shepherd them home. The...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 26, 2017


Tending the Austen flame
Jane Austen’s books feature plenty of quietly competent women going about their work with minimal fuss – and, sometimes, minimal...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 3, 2017


What I heard at the AGM
I’m back home after four whirlwind days at the Jane Austen Society of North America’s Annual General Meeting – held this year in Montreal...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 13, 2014


Janeite heaven
I spent my weekend in Janeite heaven: Saturday at “Jane Austen Day,” a delightful conference sponsored by the Eastern Pennsylvania...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 28, 2014
bottom of page