It’s fair to say that most of us apprehend Jane Austen by way of words. But for a few outliers, numbers may provide a way into her work. As we count down toward The Big Birthday next month, this week in Austen 250 celebrations offers something for both camps:   * For the linguistically inclined, the University of Western Australia, in Perth, is holding a mini-Austen conference next Monday, featuring an opportunity to view its library’s collection of Austen first editions.  

“To be quite honest, I do not think I can live without something of a musical society,” the newlywed Mrs. Elton reports telling her...

For some Janeites, fandom entails an intense engagement with the material details of Austen’s world. These Janeites are the people who...

A year ago, I was looking forward to my upcoming appearance at Jane Austen Day, a biannual event sponsored by the Eastern Pennsylvania...

Had 2020 not been so – well, 2020-ish – throngs of happy Janeites from across the globe would have staggered home earlier this month from...

I don’t know about you, but I miss dinner parties. You remember dinner parties: those occasions on which you gathered with friends –...

A thousand years ago – or, actually, back in January – the big Janeite news of 2020 was shaping up to be the eightieth anniversary of the...

The year that began yesterday will not bring us any important Jane Austen anniversaries: The bicentenaries of her death and of the...

Jane Austen is buried in Winchester Cathedral, as all good Janeites know, but it’s another prominent medieval English church that will...

Now that this Austen bicentenary year is in full swing, the announcements of commemorative events pegged to the July 18 anniversary of...