Deborah Yaffe3 days agoSecond chancesJuly 1997. A lavish birthday party for a controversial royal paramour. Her old flame and current lover, the future king of England, rises...
Deborah Yaffe6 days agoShort and sweetFellow novelists do not invariably appreciate Jane Austen—looking at you, Charlotte Brontë!—but it’s always a pleasure when they do. And...
Deborah YaffeOct 9Jane Austen speaks . . . sort ofOn October 3, I conducted a Facebook Messenger chat with Jane Austen, or at least with the AI named after her--one of twenty-eight AI...
Deborah YaffeJul 3RepresentRepresentation is a hot topic in literary circles these days, as publishers reckon (late, slowly, and imperfectly) with their long...
Deborah YaffeMay 22Listening pleasureIt’s been a sadly long time since I strolled through the garden at Jane Austen’s House, the cottage in Chawton, Hampshire, where Austen...
Deborah YaffeJan 12Alumni reunionsOver 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 YaffeDec 1, 2022CryptoJane, Part IIJane Austen’s famous remark about the relative value of tangible and intangible assets–“tho’ I like praise as well as anybody, I like...
Deborah YaffeNov 28, 2022Regency realityFor some Janeites, fandom entails an intense engagement with the material details of Austen’s world. These Janeites are the people who...
Deborah YaffeOct 17, 2022SnoozePeople who hate Jane Austen – yes, such benighted folks do exist – sometimes claim that she is so-o-o boring that she causes eyelids to...
Deborah YaffeOct 13, 2022The pendulum swingsThe smashing success of Netflix’s Bridgerton has ushered in a new era of multiracial casting in Regency costume dramas. This is good...
Deborah YaffeAug 11, 2022Still talkingIt’s never a bad time to talk about Persuasion–really, what are you doing that’s more important?--but right now may be an especially good...
Deborah YaffeJul 25, 2022Cue the wine and cheeseLast spring, as blog readers will recall, the London Times announced that Persuasion was the sixth most popular book on TikTok, the...