Title: The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen
Author: Lindsay Ashford
ISBN13: 978-0753190227
ASIN: B007BTHCIQ
Published: October 2011
Pages: 336
Genre: Historical fiction. Mystery, thriller and suspense
Description:
When Jane Austen dies at the age of just 41, Anne, governess to her brother, Edward Austen, is devastated and begins to suspect that someone might have wanted her out of the way. Now, 20 years on, she hopes that medical science might have progressed sufficiently to assess the one piece of evidence she has – a tainted lock of Jane’s hair. Natural causes or murder? Even 20 years down the line, Anne is determined to get to the bottom of the mysterious death of the acclaimed Miss Austen. A compelling speculative fictional account of the circumstances surrounding Jane Austen’s mysterious death from established crime writer Lindsay Ashford, based on her own and relatives correspondence.
Review:
Thanks to Honno Welsh Women’s Press for sending me a paperback copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I do like Jane Austen’s novels. Some more than others (Pride and Prejudice is my favourite at the moment, although there are some that I can’t even remember if and when I read them, so this could change), but I am not an expert on the subject or her number one fan. Still, when I was offered a copy of this book, I was intrigued. I had written a post about Jane Austen for my series of guest classical authors and it proved one of the most popular in my blog, and I remembered from checking her biography that she’d died quite young after a somewhat unclear illness. So a book exploring her death, and backed up with research into the archives at Chawton House, in other libraries, and also by careful perusal of some of her best known biographies was intriguing. (I’m also a doctor, but not in internal Medicine, and no Dr House either).
The book is narrated in the first person by Miss Anne Sharp, a governess who goes to work for one of Jane’s brothers, Edward, and his wife, Elizabeth, at Godmersham. Her personal circumstances are difficult, and not that different from those of Jane herself, a single woman, educated but of no independent means. In Miss Sharp’s case, she does not have a family to rely on and she considers herself lucky obtaining a position with a wealthy family, even if her standing is unclear (she is neither a servant to share the world of downstairs, nor a member of the family who can participate in all their social gatherings). She meets Jane when she visits and they are kindred spirits, well-read and less interested in fashion and finding a husband than in cultivating their minds and observing the world and the society around them. They soon become friends, and correspond and see each other often over the years, despite changes in circumstances, until Jane’s death.
The novel mixes well-researched data with some flights of fancy (the intricacies and complexities of the Austen’s family relationships are rendered much more interesting by suggestions of illicit affairs involving several family members, which then become one of the backbones of the hypothesis that Jane was poisoned with arsenic, providing a possible motivation). I’ve read reviews stating that if this novel had been published within 50 years of Jane’s death it could have been considered slander. This is probably true (I won’t go into detail, as I don’t want to give the plot away) but hardly the point. Yes, there are suppositions that would be virtually impossible to prove, but they help move the story along and serve to highlight the nature of the society of the time.
I liked the portrayal of Jane, indirect as it is and from the point of view of a fairly unreliable narrator. She is presented as a bright, humorous and fiercely intelligent woman, devout of her family but fully aware of their shortcomings. She is a keen observer of human nature and a good amateur psychologist, producing wonderful portraits of the people and the types they come across. There isn’t much detail about the process of getting her novels into publication, other than what the narrator conjectures, as she is no longer in the Austen’s circle at that point.
In the novel, Anne Sharp has feelings for Jane that go beyond friendship, but she never reveals them to Jane, and three is no suggestion that Jane reciprocates her feelings. One of the keys to the novel is the narrator. Although I thought the observational part of the novel was well achieved (I’m not an expert on the literature of the period, though, but I felt there was enough detail without getting to the point of overburdening the story), I was not so sure about how rounded Miss Sharp’s character was. She can be self-restrained one minute (in her relationship with Jane) and then throw all caution to the wind and risk her position with no solid basis for her accusations. And some of the theories she works with and then rejects felt a bit forced (yes, I had worked out who the guilty party was going to be well before she gets there). I didn’t dislike her, but wasn’t fully convinced either.
I enjoyed the book. The story moves along at good pace and it made me want to read more about Jane Austen’s life, and, especially, revisit some of her novels. As a murder mystery of the period, it is perhaps closer to a cosy mystery than to a police procedural (for evident reasons), with the beauty that the background and the period are well researched and fascinating in their own right. I would recommend it to readers in general, particularly to people who enjoy or are curious about Austen’s work, although I suspect that to real scholars of the subject it might appear too little and too fanciful. But if you want a good read, go for it.
What the book is about: The possibility that Jane Austen might not have died of natural causes. The story is told from the point of view of one of Jane’s friends who pieces together what she believes was the reasons and the guilty party to Jane’s murder. And not only hers…
Book Highlights: The inside information about Jane Austen and her family (although I don’t think there’s evidence of some of the fancier aspects of the story, but see above). It makes us want to go away and read more.
Challenges of the book: Our level of engagement with the narrator.
What do you get from it: A renewed interest in Jane Austen and her historical period.
Ratings:
Realistic Characterization: 4/5
Made Me Think: 3.5/5
Overall enjoyment: 4.5/5
Readability: 4.5/5
Recommended: 4.4/5
Overall Rating: 4/5
Buy it at:
Format & Pricing:
Paperback: $29.99 (Cheaper copies available on the site)
Kindle: $ 3.05
Hardcover: $ 27.84
Thanks to Honno for sending me a copy of the book and to Lindsay Ashford for this fascinating novel, thanks to all of you for reading, and if you’ve enjoyed it, like, share, comment and CLICK!
Olga Núñez Miret
@OlgaNM7
Lit World Interviews 
Jane Austen’s cousin, and sister in law, Eliza de Feuilide, was the author of the novels and not Jane, as I prove in my book “Jane Austen – a New Revelation”.
The medical evidence tends to show that Jane Austen was killed by arsenic poisoning which must have been administered by members of her family. Her blotchy skin was consistent with arsenic poisoning and a lock of her hair was tested by its owners in the last century and found to contain arsenic. This was consistent with the Austen family cover up of Eliza’s authorship of the novels. A letter of Jane Austen’s dated 29 January 1813 proves that all of the novels had been written by this date, as it gives the prices to be charged for each and confirms that they had been completed. Eliza died in April 1813. The letter of January 1813 shows that there were three completed novels that remained to be published: Mansfield Park, Emma and Persuasion. In addition, in 1815 or 1816 Henry Austen bought back the copyright of Northanger Abbey from the publishers. Jane Austen travelled to London and together with Henry Austen organised the publication of these last four novels from 1813 to 1817. By 1817 it was no longer necessary for Jane Austen to be kept alive and her existence might prove an embarrassment for people investigating the authorship of the novels.
The person who probably administered the arsenic would have been Cassandra Austen, her sister, who lived with her. Cassandra falsified a chronology of when each of the novels was written, showing that the last few were written after Eliza’s death. As I have mentioned, Jane Austen’s letter of 29 January 1813 shows that this chronology was false and therefore Cassandra was intimately involved in the cover up of Eliza’s authorship. Cassandra also destroyed 90 per cent of Jane Austen’s letters to expunge any evidence of Eliza’s authorship. However, she was not clever enough to destroy the letter of 29 January 1813 which is the “smoking gun” which proves Eliza’s authorship of the novels.
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