Deborah YaffeOct 7, 2021Dancing with WilloughbyWho’s Your Favorite Darcy is, by now, a classic Janeite pastime, pitting fervent Firthians against zealous MacFadyenites, while small but...
Deborah YaffeAug 30, 2021Quill and paperIn Sense and Sensibility, as Janeites will recall, Elinor Dashwood and her rival, Lucy Steele, spend a tense evening sparring genteelly...
Deborah YaffeAug 26, 2021Un-bingeingUnlike so many novelists of the Victorian period, Jane Austen didn’t publish her books in serial form. The first readers of, say, David...
Deborah YaffeJul 22, 2021Persuasion everywherePersuasion is having quite a year. Last December, a charmless modern update called Modern Persuasion – the dull, on-the-nose title gave...
Deborah YaffeFeb 22, 2021Three weeks, three books (or is it four?)Jane Austen sightings are like buses: Sometimes, you don’t get one for ages, and sometimes, they come in bunches. These last few weeks...
Deborah YaffeDec 17, 2020Eternal veritiesDespite the strangeness of this year, some eternal verities remain. Snowflakes. Evergreens. Misquoting Jane Austen. A few highlights of...
Deborah YaffeApr 2, 2020Keeping up with the KambridgesTrendy 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 YaffeMar 16, 2020FeverishNo one in Jane Austen’s novels becomes infected with a coronavirus, but that doesn’t mean she has nothing to say on the subject that now...
Deborah YaffeJan 9, 2020Meg, Jo, Elinor, MarianneLike all American girls, I loved Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, and when I shared it with my daughter many years after my first...