Editing Renée Vivien (section)

=== Illness and death ===

While visiting London in 1908, Vivien tried to kill herself by drinking an excess of [[laudanum]]. As she waited to die, she stretched out on her [[Divan (furniture)|divan]] with a bouquet of violets held over her heart. She survived the attempt. 

While in England, she contracted [[pleurisy]] and continued to grow weaker upon her eventual return to Paris. According to biographer [[Jean-Paul Goujon]], Vivien suffered from chronic [[gastritis]], due to years of [[chloral hydrate]] and alcohol abuse. She had also started to refuse to eat. By the summer of 1909, she walked with a cane.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}

Vivien died in Paris on the morning of 18 November 1909 at the age of 32; the cause of death was reported at the time as "lung congestion", but likely resulted from [[pneumonia]] complicated by alcoholism, [[drug abuse]], and [[anorexia nervosa]] {{citation needed|date=November 2024}}.  She was interred at [[Cimetière de Passy|Passy Cemetery]] in the same Parisian neighbourhood where she had lived.{{sfn |Jay |1988 |pp=[https://archive.org/details/amazonpagenatali0000jayk/page/18/mode/2up?q=pneumonia 18–19]}}