Deborah YaffeApr 10, 2019On this day in 1805. . .Forty-third in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. "It is a period, indeed!” Captain Wentworth exclaims to Anne...
Deborah YaffeMar 31, 2019CliffsNotes for kiddiesI am all in favor of introducing young people to great literature, even great literature they are probably too young to fully appreciate....
Deborah YaffeMar 7, 2019Getting it wrongJane Austen, it seems safe to say, is one of the most famous writers who ever lived, especially in English-speaking countries. Yet out...
Deborah YaffeFeb 14, 2019The dating gameValentine’s Day, the celebration of lovers, dates back to the Middle Ages. Yet Jane Austen – often described as the mother of the romance...
Deborah YaffeDec 31, 2018NineteenNineteen is a number much on our collective minds today, as we prepare to usher in 2019, the last year of the second decade of the...
Deborah YaffeDec 24, 2018'Twas the night before ChristmasTomorrow is Christmas, the day on which a larger-than-life personage employing semi-equine transport suddenly appears in our homes,...
Deborah YaffeDec 17, 2018On this day in 1816. . .Fortieth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. It’s not always easy to tell when Jane Austen, master of irony,...
Deborah YaffeDec 13, 2018Desperately seeking romance in Jane AustenVirginia Woolf famously wrote of Jane Austen that “of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness.” Let...
Deborah YaffeNov 29, 2018On this day in 1812. . .Thirty-ninth in an occasional series of excerpts from Jane Austen's letters. Talk about burying the lead. The letter that Jane Austen...
Deborah YaffeNov 22, 2018Saint CharlotteThanksgiving Day may seem to be a holiday with no connection whatsoever to the works of Jane Austen. True, her major novels include the...
Deborah YaffeNov 19, 2018A really accomplished young computerJane Austen’s novels have provided the inspiration for any number of musical treatments, from operas and a classical instrumental suite...
Deborah YaffeOct 24, 2018Mockingbird in a landslideCan I get half credit? As blog readers will recall, last week I predicted (correctly, as it turned out) that Pride and Prejudice,...