Crime Novelist Claims Jane Austen Died of ‘Arsenic Poisoning’
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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.
While reading Austen’s correspondence, Ashford came across a line the novelist wrote just a few months before she died: “I am considerably better now and am recovering my looks a little, which have been bad enough, black and white and every wrong colour.”
Familiar with poisons from researching her crime novels, 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.
“As a crime writer I’ve done a lot of research into arsenic, and I think it was just a bit of serendipity, that someone like me came to look at her letters with a very different eye to the eye most people cast on Jane Austen. It’s just luck I have this knowledge, which most Austen academics wouldn’t,” Ashford said.
And like a good crime novelist, Ashford thinks it’s quite possible that Austen was murdered, not just medicated, with arsenic, as she speculates in her new novel, “The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen.”
“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.”
“In the early 19th century a lot of people were getting away with murder with arsenic as a weapon, because it wasn’t until the Marsh test was developed in 1836 that human remains could be analysed for the presence of arsenic,” Ashford added.
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Uhm . . . OK. Now what?
Posted by: Jim | November 14, 2011, 2:25 pm 2:25 pm
Austen could have died as a result of medicated arsenic poisoning. This was fairly common in her day. But, to make a unfounded allegation that she was deliberately poisoned by a member of her family is irresponsible, and probably a ploy for some obscure crime novelist to drum up interest for an absurd book about the topic.
Doesn’t really matter anyway. Austen’s reputation as “the great stylist” has taken a sound beating ever since her manuscripts, which were hidden from scrutiny for over 150 years, have been recently looked at by literary scholars. It appears that her editor, William Gifford, was the one whose talent established Austen’s rank among the notable English novelists. Poor Jane couldn’t spell or punctuate, had a poor understanding of syntax, so, it’s a reach that a literary genius lurked beneath the surface of someone who evidently semi-literate.
Posted by: laszloseverance | November 14, 2011, 2:27 pm 2:27 pm
I’m sure that this woman is purely objective and not just making a pub grab for her new book on the subject.
Posted by: Brian Levine | November 14, 2011, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
And this is important why?
Posted by: snewsom2997 | November 14, 2011, 2:42 pm 2:42 pm
Never heard of this novelist. Therefore, to drum up sales, she needed to create a “sensation”. I do not think Jane Austen would have been very impressed.
Posted by: pksk531 | November 14, 2011, 3:14 pm 3:14 pm
Lindsay Ashford is a prime example of even a published writer making a wild attempt to grab the public’s attention and to promote her latest stuff. It used to be called “hearsay” or even “make believe” but to call it research and accurate is nonsense. –Need to read more about the age in which Austen lived. Prescriptions that contained arsenic were numerous and often lethal. –Big scare: do you read carefully all–yes all–the “side effects” possible on each of your own prescriptions today?
Posted by: ellie schmidt | November 14, 2011, 3:29 pm 3:29 pm
All this time I thought Bush did it. Must be nice to be able to live your life on speculation of what happened almost 200 years ago. When and if the evidence is ever found to substantiate the allegation will the remains of who did it be dug up and tried?
Posted by: Give Me a Break | November 14, 2011, 5:30 pm 5:30 pm
Austin;s reputation is still intact contrary to the comments of Jim. Her fans are totally devoted and to claim that a man was responsible for her writings is the rantings of an envious male.who cannot bear to see a woman held in such high regard as Jane Austin.
Posted by: l5int | November 14, 2011, 9:38 pm 9:38 pm
Even arsenic was put in their powder in those days to make the faces more white as white skin and particularly faces was representative of a lady and of wealth. Only commoners had to work out in the sun and were tanned so the coloring had to be lily white. The arsenic powder did that. Unfortunately it also killed some as well. So could be that as well as in medicines. Does sound as though she was poisoned since arsenic was in her hair and the description evidently represented that. Unfortunae.
Posted by: Carolyn | November 14, 2011, 10:45 pm 10:45 pm
If her condition was improving as Austen writes, wouldn’t that be more consistent with accidental overexposure from medications or other sources, and not intentional poisoning? See symptoms of exposure below, from BBC Health Website. Unless the poisoner intended to be extremely subtle and allow her to temporarily improve… seems unlikely to me.
SYMPTOMS OF EXPOSURE TO ARSENIC
A person exposed to large amounts of arsenic – either through eating or drinking it – will usually die, and symptoms will appear within 30 minutes of exposure. Although the onset of symptoms may be delayed as the concentration is likely to be lower, there is a similar outlook for people who breathe large amounts of it.
Acute arsenic poisoning causes a metallic taste in the mouth, excessive saliva production and problems swallowing. The next stage is to suffer vomiting and diarrhoea coupled with garlic-like breath, stomach cramps and excessive sweating.
As the poison’s effects progress, the patient will suffer seizures and go into shock, dying within a few hours. If death does not occur at this stage, it will happen a few days when the kidney fails
Posted by: smcnazz | November 15, 2011, 11:50 am 11:50 am