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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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Here he comes again
Twenty years ago, Matthew Macfadyen’s Mr. Darcy strolled out of the morning mist to a swelling strings-and-piano accompaniment and sent...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 6, 2025
Putting it on
Seldom do I appreciate zippers more than when I’ve just watched actors in Regency costume recreate the rituals of Jane Austen-era...
Deborah Yaffe
Mar 13, 2025
Pemberley on the wall
When Elizabeth Bennet visits Pemberley, she admires the furniture, the paintings, and the view from the windows. Apparently, however, she...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 20, 2025
The Shirt, unveiled
Sometimes launching a museum exhibition is a complicated process, as catalogs are researched, international loan agreements negotiated,...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 13, 2024
Speaking well enough to be unintelligible
A few weeks ago, the British press was suddenly awash in articles (for example, here, here and here) about the new! exciting! previously...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 16, 2023
Killing Mr. Darcy
You’ve heard it before: Modern men can’t measure up to Jane Austen’s heroes. Straight, female Janeites are hooked on impossible...
Deborah Yaffe
May 2, 2022
A wet shirt and a centennial
The venerable British Broadcasting Corporation turns 100 this year, a century after the launch of its first daily radio service. To mark...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 20, 2022
Boo!
It’s the scary season – ghosts, witches, creaking doors in haunted houses. For Janeites, however, the Internet’s frightening capacity to...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 28, 2021
Brass
Jane Austen, it seems, is the go-to novelist for anyone who wants to write about money. In 1937, the poet W.H. Auden famously remarked...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 11, 2021
Silt and sensibility
As we Pride and Prejudice readers know, Mr. Darcy’s responsible stewardship of his beautiful grounds at Pemberley is an important factor...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 16, 2021
Deck the halls
It was Christmas in July for those of us who spend our days looking for pop-culture recognition of Jane Austen’s genius: * July 14:...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 12, 2021
Eternal verities
Despite the strangeness of this year, some eternal verities remain. Snowflakes. Evergreens. Misquoting Jane Austen. A few highlights of...
Deborah Yaffe
Dec 17, 2020
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