Deborah YaffeJan 30, 2014The Watsons in Winter: Merryn WilliamsMerryn Williams’ completion of The Watsons, Jane Austen’s fragment of a novel, is a modest undertaking. With new material that runs only...
Deborah YaffeJan 27, 2014The Watsons in Winter: Joan AikenJoan Aiken’s books were among the delights of my childhood – propulsive, plot-driven novels in the Gothic spirit of Victorian classics...
Deborah YaffeJan 23, 2014The Watsons in Winter: David Hopkinson ("Another")What is it with the extended Hubback clan? They just can’t seem to get enough of Jane Austen’s fragment The Watsons. The first person to...
Deborah YaffeJan 20, 2014The Watsons in Winter: John CoatesJane Austen was not perfect. Not every sentence that fell from her pen was a masterpiece; like all of us, she needed an editor’s eye from...
Deborah YaffeJan 16, 2014The Watsons in Winter: Edith Hubback BrownLess than two sentences into her preface, Edith Hubback Brown is already asserting her genetic right to complete Jane Austen’s fragment...
Deborah YaffeJan 13, 2014The Watsons in Winter: L. OultonCatherine Hubback, the first person to try her hand at a completion of Jane Austen’s fragment The Watsons, is no longer an entirely...
Deborah YaffeJan 9, 2014The Watsons in Winter: Catherine HubbackThe first-ever completion of Jane Austen’s fragment The Watsons – Catherine Hubback’s 1850 novel The Younger Sister, the subject of...
Deborah YaffeJan 6, 2014The Watsons in WinterThe Watsons, the novel Jane Austen started and then abandoned on the cusp of her thirties, is a wintry book: not, perhaps, in its...
Deborah YaffeDec 30, 2013Jane Austen's 2013For someone who’s been dead since 1817, Jane Austen had a pretty good year in 2013. She was honored with a set of UK stamps, and her...
Deborah YaffeOct 28, 2013Dissed by the Austen ProjectJoanna Trollope’s modern-dress adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, the first in a planned series of six Austen updates by popular...
Deborah YaffeSep 9, 2013Austenland: Just plain badShannon Hale’s Austenland is not a great work of literature: it’s a mildly entertaining beach read with a cute romantic denouement. The...
Deborah YaffeJul 29, 2013Sanditon Summer: Jennifer PetkusIn 1920, reviewing an Austen great-niece's biography of her famous relative, the writer Katherine Mansfield put her finger on something...