What Killed Jane Austen?

Medical mysteries, marvels and mayhem

Jane Austen, the much-loved author of 'Emma', 'Pride and Prejudice' and 'Sense and Sensibility' was just 42 when she died. Do you know what killed her?

The intriguing nature of Jane Austen's demise is just one of a series of sometimes famous, often bizarre and always memorable stories. Why was Louis XVI embarrassed on his wedding night? What uncomfortable maladies plagued Napoleon during and after Waterloo. Did a stand-in take the rap for Rudolf Hess? Was Winston Churchill fit to rule? Why did Mary Tudor have phantom pregnancies and a deep voice? Have you heard about the Alabama syphilis scandal? What did the autopsy reveal about Lenin's mental state? Why did Freud dabble with cocaine?

Here is a collection of always fascinating and sometimes gory anecdotes about royalty, quacks, eccentrics, reformers and pioneers, together with some astonishing tales of discoveries, disasters, diseases, addictions and obsessions.

What killed Jane Austen? If only she knew!