Deborah YaffeOct 24Center of celebrationIf next year’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth has an epicenter, it would surely be Jane Austen’s House , the...
Deborah YaffeOct 14On footJane Austen’s heroines do a lot of walking. Elizabeth Bennet strides purposefully from Longbourn to Netherfield, muddying her petticoat...
Deborah YaffeOct 10Plain and ornamentalIn his 1870 Memoir of Jane Austen , the author’s nephew, James Edward Austen-Leigh, reports that his famous aunt “was successful in...
Deborah YaffeSep 23Creepy LizzyThe newest Lizzy Bennet is a peculiar creature. True, her Regency-appropriate curls are lovely, and her dark eyes might pass for fine,...
Deborah YaffeJun 6Acquired tasteMansfield Park’s status as the most polarizing of Jane Austen’s novels is by now well-established. It’s the black-olives-and-anchovy...
Deborah YaffeMay 23Noses to the grindstoneJust three weeks after Jane Austen’s House launched its much-hyped group effort to transcribe the unpublished memoir of Austen’s older...
Deborah YaffeMay 13Too good to checkJournalists like to joke that some stories are “too good to check”: so juicily entertaining that the last thing you want is to attempt...
Deborah YaffeApr 29Written by handGather ‘round, children, and let me tell you about the olden days, when elders such as myself spent long hours, in school and out,...
Deborah YaffeApr 15Not In Jane's Backyard, Part IIJane Austen died without finishing Sanditon, her novel about a developer trying to turn a sleepy small town into a bustling seaside...
Deborah YaffeDec 21, 2023The sounds of Jane Austen ChristmasEmma Woodhouse’s Christmas holiday is not a good one, as readers of Emma will recall: On Christmas Eve, she fends off Mr. Elton’s...
Deborah YaffeAug 14, 2023WallpaperingMy husband, an aspiring rock god, owns a T-shirt reading, “How many guitars do I really need? Just one more.” Many Janeites harbor...
Deborah YaffeJul 13, 2023PodlifeThe universe of Jane Austen podcasts is hardly underpopulated. You can choose from titles like AustenTherapy, Bonnets at Dawn, First...