Sources

As this weblog attempts to demonstrate, there are many online resources available to historians and medical experts who wish to solve the puzzle of Jane Austen’s last illness on their own. Please see a list of suggested reading materials below.

Ashford, Lindsay. “I’m Convinced thatJane Austen was Poisoned by Arsenic: A Startling Revelation by One of Britain’s Leading Crime Novelists,” The Daily Mail Online, 13 November 2011.

Ashford, Lindsay.  The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen. (Isis Large Print, 2011).

Austen Family Personal Papers, at the National Archives.

Austen, Henry.  BiographicalNotice of Jane Austen, preface to Persuasion and Northanger Abbey (London, 1817).

Austen, Jane . Jane Austen's Letters To Her Sister Cassandra and Others, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

Austen, Jane. The Letters of Jane Austen, 2d ed., Ed. J.W. Chapman.

Austen, Jane.  Jane Austen’s Will at the National Archives.

Austen, Jane.  Jane Austen’s Letters to Her Sister Cassandra and Others. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library

Austen-Leigh, William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh.  Jane Austen: Her Life and Letters.

Project Gutenburg Online Edition (hyperlinked) with a Chronology of Jane Austen's Life.

Ball, Hendrik. “Arsenic Poisoning and Napoleon’s Death. “ The Victorian Web, National University of Singapore citing “The Strange Story of Napoleon’s Wallpaper,” on the Grand Illusions website.

Cope, [Vincent] Zachary.  “JaneAusten’s Last Illness.”  British Medical Journal 18 July 1964: 182-83.  

Greene, Richard Allen. “What Really Killed Jane Austen?” CNN 2 December 2009

Highfield, Roger. “Napoleon Didn’t Die from Arsenic Poisoning,” The Telegraph, 11 February 2008,

Jabr, Ferris.  “Was Jane Austen Poisoned by Arsenic? Science May Soon Find Out,” Scientific American, 5 December 2011.

Kaplan, Laurie.  “A Dangerous Indulgence.” Jane Austen’s Regency World 27 July 2004: 22-25.  

Krajewska, Barbara.  “Arsenic and the Emperor,” Revue de Souvenier Napoleonien, reproduced at Napoleon.org article archive, 2008.

Live Science staff. “Napoleon Death: Arsenic Poisoning Ruled Out,” 12 February 2008.

Magnuson, Nancy. “Twenty-five Years of Jane Austen,” Goucher College Digital Library

Mayer, Nancy. “The Ladies Medicine Chest,” Nancy Mayer Regency Researcher Page

Parascandola, John.  King of Poisons: A History of Arsenic (Potomac Books, 2012)

Philip, A[lexander] P[hilips] Wilson.  A Treatise on Febrile Diseases, Including the Various Species of Fever, and All Diseases Attended with Fever.  3rd ed.  Vol. 1.  London: Underwood, 1813.  [Google Books]

Scott, Anna. “Review: The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen by Lindsay Ashford,” The Guardian (UK), 8 November 2011

Seth, Sumit.  “Mystery Behind Napoleon’s Death,” Review of Forensic Medicine, 13 December 2004

Stewart, George Franklin and C. O. Chicester.  Advances in Food Research. Vol. 22, 9 July 1976, p. 258, comments on Scanning Electron Microscope study of Jane Austen’s hair.

Swift, J.A.  Scanning electron microscope study of Jane Austen's hair.  Nature.  1972 Jul 21; 238 (5360): 161-2. Available through the Readcube website.

Tomalin, Claire.  Jane Austen, a Life.  New York: Knopf, 1997.

Upfal, Annette.  “Jane Austen’s Lifelong Health Problems and Final Illness: New Evidence Points to a Fatal Hodgkin’s Disease and Excludes the Widely Accepted Addison’s.”  Medical Humanities 31 (2005): 3-11.  

White, Kathryn G.  “Jane Austenand Addison’s Disease: An Unconvincing Diagnosis.”  Journal of Medical Ethics; Medical Humanities 35 (2009): 98-100.