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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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Riding high
By now, Jane Austen has made so many top-novel lists that it’s hard to come up with anything new to say when she makes yet another one....
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 11, 2019
The sound of (Austen) music
Music plays intermittent cameo roles in Jane Austen’s novels: think of Mary Bennet delighting us long enough in Pride and Prejudice, or...
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 7, 2019
Strange bedfellows
By now, we’ve gotten used to seeing Jane Austen in rather. . . um . . . interesting company. She’s been paired with zombies and sea...
Deborah Yaffe
Nov 4, 2019
Liar, liar
In David Lodge’s classic 1975 academic novel Changing Places, the English-professor characters discuss a game of intellectual chicken...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 10, 2019
Yet more on-screen Austen
I recognize that not everyone craves another Jane Austen-themed screen drama. Some may have balked at the all! sex! all! the! time! hype...
Deborah Yaffe
Oct 7, 2019
Pictures at an exhibition
Is Michelle Obama a Janeite? As far as I’m aware, no documentation exists to settle the question either way. But circumstantial evidence...
Deborah Yaffe
Sep 16, 2019
Popping the question
According to my parents, one of the most important promises they made to each other upon their marriage was this one: no surprise...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 8, 2019
Water, water everywhere
It’s been a wet week for Janeites. Last Monday, we were treated to the first trailer for Sanditon, the forthcoming ITV-PBS adaptation of...
Deborah Yaffe
Aug 5, 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
Greatest Hits, Part I
The Emmy nominations were announced recently, and all the brouhaha over Game of Thrones et al. has left me hankering to award some...
Deborah Yaffe
Jul 29, 2019
Oh, those clothes. .
The success of the screen adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels has been attributed to many factors: romantic plots, attractive stars,...
Deborah Yaffe
Jul 8, 2019
Influences
“Can a book change the course of your life?” asks the cover headline on the latest issue of my college alumni magazine. Inside, seventeen...
Deborah Yaffe
Jun 10, 2019
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