Crime Writer Lindsay Ashford: Jane Austen Was Poisoned

Until yesterday, Jane Austen was thought to have died of bovine tuberculosis or Hodgkin's lymphoma, a strain of cancer. But crime writer, Lindsay Ashford, recently told The Guardian that the untimely death of the beloved author was due to an even less innocuous offender: poison.

By the time she was in her 40s, Austen had completed six novels, including the often celebrated and studied "Pride and Prejudice." But while working on another book, "Sanditon," the writer came down with a painful illness that left her with discolored, brownish skin.

Ashford, author of the recently published "The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen" [Honro], read about these symptoms in Austen's letters: "I am considerably better now and am recovering my looks a little, which have been bad enough, black and white and every wrong colour." Because she had researched poison and contemporary forensic techniques for her crime novels, Ashford was able to identify Austen's symptoms as potential arsenic poisoning. Arsenic would also explain Austen's slow decline and fatigue. Asford's suspicions were heightened "after she learned that a lock of Austen’s hair on display in a museum tested positive for arsenic."

As Flavorwire reports, arsenic does not necessarily equate to murder, as we're so often led to believe, because "a doctor could well have prescribed a medicine containing the element." Still, Ashford wishes not to rule out the option.

"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 said, also noting that Austen's family history was somewhat tumultuous, and there may have been "motive for murder."

Correction: We erroneously stated that Jane Austen was a Victorian author. In fact, she died 20 years before Victoria became queen. The error has been corrected.

Comments

[sillydolphin150]

02:28 AM on 05/01/2012

Arsenic pills were also commonly used by women to get the favored pale complexion. Who knows? If you're claiming murder by arsenic poisining then there's also ground to lay claim that she killed herself (unintentionally of course!).

[jeantopete]

04:47 PM on 03/05/2012

Ironically we today are still being treated with drugs that literally kill us, and make us look worse than the disease. Scary. Really scary. A side note - just got a e-mail link regarding a person who used Cannibus "Hash Oil" to treat skin cancer on his nose; I'm not an advocate for smoking the stuff but his report really makes me think there is something to his cure. And he also notes the reason the drug producers only deem their drugs as usable. Profit over truth in treatments. So, the witch doctors today traveling the West are still around. I just don't know what to believe anymore.

[WinPeg35]

02:54 PM on 12/12/2011

Why isn't anyone criticizing Ashford? Surpise, surprise.... a mediocre crime writer who
wishes to become better known and sell more books, decides to use poor Jane Austen to do it for her. Just like so many other unimaginative authors who have used Austen in a similar way. Using the fact that Jane had skin problems with her final illness, simply solidifies the diagnosis of Addison's disease which is often characterized by hyper-pigmentation of the skin and changes in hair. She very likely used a cream with arsenic in it to try to clear the changes in pigmentation. Certainly arsenic was used very commonly by doctors well into the 19th C to treat people medically in a variety of ways. Most of her other symptoms also point to Addison's which often followed tuberculosis. Ashford's found herself a good gimmick, hasn't she? And people are falling for it.

[ChrisRoberts]

12:52 PM on 11/20/2011

If she wasn't murdered, she should have been for her tepid, rather pedestrian prose. Rest In Pieces.

[jeantopete]

04:49 PM on 03/05/2012

Tsk Tsk ChrisRoberts, a cold statement; it's all about how a reader likes his or her read. No need for the cruel comment.

[JHWriter]

07:28 PM on 11/19/2011

Yes, she was killed by Jane Austen groupies.

[85Percent]

04:44 PM on 11/18/2011

Ah-Ha! Now we know why Cassandra burned most of Jane's papers.

[c-tom]

05:41 PM on 11/17/2011

Some think Shakespeare did it but de Vere is a more likely suspect. We all know Oxford had a time machine.

[gracemiller]

11:08 AM on 11/16/2011

It might be that Austen used a topical cream containing arsenic in an effort to lighten brown patches of skin and/or to reduce aging and creasing of the skin,. Such topical applications were quite popular and believed to be harmless. Unfortunately enough arsenic could be absorbed into the bloodstream to cause severe health problems.

[ThEbor]

09:55 AM on 11/16/2011

Obviously, it was a murder-conspiracy perpetrated by the then Dean and Canons of Winchester. The cathedral needed repairs and a dead-cert for money raising.

[SouthernYankeeBelle]

09:15 AM on 11/16/2011

All I can say is to bad she died early in her life. She was such a great writer. God only knows what books she could have written.

[Arnie Perlstein]

07:54 AM on 11/16/2011

We'll never know the whole story about why Jane Austen died at the height of her artistic powers at age 41, but what is for sure is that her brothers, before she was even cold in the grave, started the Big Lie about what sort of writer and person she was, sanitizing her radical feminist message, a Big Lie that has only started to crumble after 2 centuries:

http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2011/11/big-lie-about-jane-austen.html

http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2010/07/when-once-we-are-buried-you-think-we.html

Cheers, ARNIE PERLSTEIN
Weston, Florida

[karen lyons kalmenson]

09:07 AM on 11/16/2011

a very toxic family, indeed and greed

[Noreen Anderson]

04:14 AM on 11/16/2011

what a load of rubbish- conjecture based on nonsense

[libbyejansen]

04:23 AM on 11/16/2011

considering who she was related to, the royal family distantly, I can't rule it out. But the article also states that arsenic was used in many medications of the time so I fail to see how you can say rubbish especialy when a lock of hair tested positive for arsenic; also stated in the article.

[lesaltatum]

05:42 AM on 11/16/2011

In Persuasion, Sir Walter asks Anne what she had been using to make herself look so well. He asks if she was using Gowlands Lotion. I looked up Gowlands Lotion and it was an actual product that was loaded with lead and arsenic. So there were not just medications that contained arsenic but beauty products as well.

[libbyejansen]

06:22 AM on 11/16/2011

not to mention a one time custom the even Queen Elizabeth, the first, of powdering the face; a high lead content powder to get the whitest white, and the hair as well.Do they still powder the hair in the House of Lords? I believe they still use wigs.

[lisakaz2]

03:50 AM on 11/16/2011

I think a combination of bloodletting and arsenic in medicine (among other things) could have been enough. There were really poisonous things done supposedly for medicinal value. Heck, one of her characters in "Sense and Sensibility" nearly dies from the combination of a fever and bloodletting.

[Ghostberry]

02:35 AM on 11/16/2011

Pimping a famous name for your book, shameful. Come to us when you have something substantial to say.

[MesesMom]

02:33 AM on 11/16/2011

This claim is a non-starter. As recently as the early 1900s, arsenic was used to treat heart patients. The treatment would starts with one drop in a glass of water a day,, next two two drops, andso forth...up to seven drops...and then work its way back down again. Arsenic isn't always poisonous, depending on the dosage.

[lisakaz2]

03:52 AM on 11/16/2011

Dosage indeed. Like the eyedrops put in newborn babies' eyes. Given that, an accident is also likely or a bit too much followed by a bloodletting.