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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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Triggered
In my junior year of college, the assigned reading for my women’s studies class included Gloria Naylor’s 1982 novel The Women of Brewster...
Deborah Yaffe
Feb 13, 2023
Alumni reunions
Over the holidays, my family settled in for a screening of that sublime romcom Notting Hill. When the movie ended (“I’m just a girl,...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 12, 2023
Scary monsters
Happy Halloween, Janeites! Although Austen wrote no scenes of trick-or-treating, pumpkin-carving, or gorging on candy corn, she certainly...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 31, 2022
On this day in 1801. . .
Seventy-first in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Moving out of one house and into another is a stressful,...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 3, 2022
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
Giving credit where credit is due
Those of us who set ourselves up as arbiters of correctness in matters of Jane Austen quotation never run short of opportunities to...
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 7, 2020
Austen math
Remind me: How many novels did Jane Austen write, again? Just kidding! Yes, of course, the answer is six. But if you didn’t know that...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 13, 2020
Keeping up with the Kambridges
Trendy fashion accessories come and go. One year, it’s thigh-high red boots and black berets; the next it’s purple shoes and tiny...
Deborah Yaffe
Apr 2, 2020
Keeping up with the Janeites, Part II
In September, we suspected. We hoped. We crossed our fingers. And now it’s confirmed. In perhaps the least likely household on Planet...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 30, 2020
Midwinter diversion
“I have just learnt to love a hyacinth.” “. . . . So much the better. You have gained a new source of enjoyment, and it is well to have...
Deborah Yaffe
Jan 20, 2020
Forty years and counting
It’s that time again, Janeites: The Jane Austen Society of North America is holding its Annual General Meeting (AGM) over the next four...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 3, 2019
Greatest Hits, Part II
As I have pointed out rather often, most recently earlier this week, the Internet is filled with quotes from filmed adaptations of Jane...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 1, 2019
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