Editing Jane Austen (section)

===Illness and death===

{{main|Causes of Jane Austen's death}}

[[File:Jane Austen's House - geograph.org.uk - 1314316.jpg|thumb|left|upright|8 College Street in Winchester where Austen lived her last days and died]]
Austen was feeling unwell by early 1816, but ignored the warning signs. By the middle of that year, her decline was unmistakable, and she began a slow, irregular deterioration.<ref>Honan (1987), 378–379, 385–395</ref> The majority of biographers rely on [[Zachary Cope]]'s 1964 [[retrospective diagnosis]] and list her cause of death as [[Addison's disease]], although her final illness has also been described as resulting from [[Hodgkin's lymphoma]].<ref>For detailed information concerning the retrospective diagnosis, its uncertainties and related controversies, see Honan (1987), 391–392; Le Faye (2004), 236; Grey<!-- , "Life of Jane Austen," in Grey --> (1986), 282; Wiltshire, ''Jane Austen and the Body'', 221.</ref>{{efn|Claire Tomalin prefers a diagnosis of a lymphoma such as Hodgkin's disease.<ref>Tomalin (1997), Appendix I, 283–284; see also A. Upfal, [http://mh.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/31/1/3 "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(1),| 2005, 3–11. {{doi|10.1136/jmh.2004.000193}}</ref>}} When her uncle died and left his entire fortune to his wife, effectively disinheriting his relatives, she suffered a relapse, writing: "I am ashamed to say that the shock of my Uncle's Will brought on a relapse&nbsp;... but a weak Body must excuse weak Nerves."<ref name="Todd13" />

Austen continued to work in spite of her illness. Dissatisfied with the ending of ''The Elliots'', she rewrote the final two chapters, which she finished on 6 August 1816.{{efn|The manuscript of the revised final chapters of ''Persuasion'' is the only surviving manuscript for any of her published novels in her own handwriting.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 255.</ref> Cassandra and Henry Austen chose the final titles and the title page is dated 1818.}} In January 1817, Austen began ''The Brothers'' (titled ''[[Sanditon]]'' when published in 1925), completing twelve chapters before stopping work in mid-March 1817, probably due to illness.<ref>Tomalin (1997), 261.</ref> Todd describes ''Sanditon''{{'}}s heroine, Diana Parker, as an "energetic invalid". In the novel Austen mocked [[hypochondriacs]], and although she describes the heroine as "bilious", five days after abandoning the novel she wrote of herself that she was turning "every wrong colour" and living "chiefly on the sofa".<ref name = "Todd13">Todd (2015), 13</ref> She put down her pen on 18&nbsp;March 1817, making a note of it.<ref name = "Todd13"/>

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Austen made light of her condition, describing it as "bile" and [[rheumatism]]. As her illness progressed, she experienced difficulty walking and lacked energy; by mid-April she was confined to bed. In May, Cassandra and Henry brought her to [[Winchester]] for treatment, by which time she suffered agonising pain and welcomed death.<ref name = "Todd13"/> Austen died in Winchester on 18&nbsp;July 1817 at the age of 41. Henry, through his clerical connections, arranged for his sister to be buried in the north aisle of the [[nave]] of [[Winchester Cathedral]]. The epitaph composed by her brother James praises Austen's personal qualities, expresses hope for her salvation, and mentions the "extraordinary endowments of her mind", but does not explicitly mention her achievements as a writer.<ref>Le Faye (2014), xxv–xxvi; Fergus (1997), 26–27; Tomalin (1997), 254–271; Honan (1987), 385–405.</ref>