Posted on 02/09/2012 9:41:41 PM PST by BlackVeil
Nearly 200 years after Jane Austen‘s untimely death, crime novelist Lindsay Ashford has come up with a new explanation: arsenic poisoning. Austen, the English author of such classic novels as “Pride and Prejudice” and “Sense and Sensibility,” died in 1817 at age 41. Her death has been attributed to everything from cancer to Addison’s disease. But Ashford, who moved to Austen’s village of Chawton three years ago and started writing her new crime novel in the former home of Austen’s brother, stumbled across another possibility — that Austen died of arsenic poisoning. ... Ashford recognized that Austen’s symptoms could be attributed to arsenic poisoning, which can turn patches of skin brown or black while other areas go white. Ashford then met with the former president of the Jane Austen Society of North America, who told her that the lock of Austen’s hair bought at auction in 1948 had tested positive for arsenic. The crime novelist told The Guardian newspaper that it’s highly likely Austen was given medicines containing arsenic, as was common then. ...“I don’t think murder is out of the question,” she said. “Having delved into her family background, there was a lot going on that has never been revealed and there could have been a motive for murder.” ...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Book sales!
Wowsers!
I’ll have to ask my uncle who says he knew her.
If true, not surprising.
Arsenic seems to be responsible for many deaths in that era.
I know I lose many nights sleep over her death.
Interesting.
But nothing quite compares to polonium. Just ask Vlad.
“Was Jane Austen Murdered?”
Yes, I flew into a murderous rage after being forced to read Sense and Sensibility in a college class.
Exhume! Exhume! Exhume!
Emily Bronte had Heathcliff dispatch her and steal the original manuscript, which she later claimed as her own original story ..../S
Or sumpin lack that....
Given that it was used in everything from medicine to wallpaper to make up, that should hardly be a surprise.
Yup! You got it!
I knew it was you, Apollo ... I always knew it was you ...
I know it sounds weird but some people were actually addicted to arsenic, especially in Victorian times. Maybe she was hooked and OD’ed. Some thought it was a cure-all. Every time I think about it I think of the equivalent of drinking draino today and surviving — yuck. James Maybrick, wealthy cotton buyer from England, died of arsenic poisoning and his American wife was convicted of the crime, although later released. He seemed to be an addict to the point where he could take enough to kill himself on a daily basis but didn’t die until he way upped his dose. Interesting fact some think he was Jack the Ripper. Some also think his wife really did kill him.
Placemarker
Placemarker
Jane Austen died 20 years before Queen Victoria’s reign.
I know but I still think of that whole time period as Victorian in nature, with the literature, science and new discoveries that came about 30 years before until 10 years after Queen Victoria. And Arsenic was a drug of choice for many artists, including writers.
CSI: Cold Case
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