Jane Austen discussion

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Stephanie Barron
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New Speculation on Jane's Cause of Death
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Paula Byrne in The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things subscribes to the Addison's theory but suggests Jane had an Addison's crash brought on by the stress of her brother Henry's bank failure, her brother Edward being sued by his adopted parents' family (and thus fearing the Austen women will lose their home) and Mansfield Park not selling well. I buy that one but I'm not sure about early menopause. There's no evidence for that but that's something Cassandra would have censored in the letters so we'll never know.


I suppose there were any number of health conditions that had not been formally identified or defined (let alone their causes), and were classified in ways that modern doctors have to try and decipher from symptoms and so on.
Do modern doctors know what causes Addison's? Did anyone else in Austen's family seem to have it, either in her generation or subsequent ones? No idea if it's genetic anyway? Maybe auto-immune??
Austen and JFK are the two most famous people with it - anyone else??

I shall have to go and Google 'Addison's' I can see !!!

The disease can be brought on by an autoimmune attack or other causes. I once had a doctor say he thought I might have Addison’s, and my reply was, “That’s taking Jane Austen fandom entirely too far!” (Fortunately, the blood test was negative.)

It was a doctor named Zachary Cope who first proposed that Addison's disease had killed Austen in an article, published in the British Medical Journal in 1964. More recent studies discount that theory. Apparently Stephanie Barron missed those.
This one says Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma.
https://mh.bmj.com/content/31/1/3
THIS ONE -from a Jane Austen Society member and medical professional suggests Lupus. Hmm .... my other favorite, Louisa May Alcott may also have died from Lupus.
https://chawtonhouse.org/2021/03/the-...
Unlike Louisa, there are no portraits of Jane to lend credence to that theory. We only have her letters to go on and who knows if she was telling the whole truth about her symptoms.
Books mentioned in this topic
The Jane Austen Project (other topics)The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things (other topics)
The Jane Austen Project (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
Louisa May Alcott (other topics)Paula Byrne (other topics)
Stephanie Barron (other topics)
Stephanie Barron's new theory is early onset menopause caused Addison's disease. It's an interesting read.
https://crimereads.com/jane-austen-de...