Between 1811 and December 1815, Jane Austen published four of her six novels. By the end of 1816, she had completed another. Yet by July 18 1817 (205 years ago today), she was dead.
None of her doctors seemed to know why she died, and the cause of her death has remained a mystery despite repeated attempts to solve it. How could a woman who had been healthy and energetic in her late-30s succumb so quickly by the age of 41?
Had she suffered from tuberculosis, the century’s great killer, it would certainly have been recognised and diagnosed at the time. And Addison’s disease, suggested as the cause in 1964 by the eminent surgeon Sir Zachary Cope, does not fit the facts provided by the letters from Jane to her sister, Cassandra, and other family members.
Nor does lymphoma, advanced as a candidate by Claire Tomalin in her excellent biography Jane Austen: A Life (1997) and by Mariella Frostrup in her recent Channel 4 series, Britain’s Novel Landscapes. Other reasons given for her early death, such as cancer of the stomach, have satisfied few.
Read more: The Telegraph
