Inside Jane Austen's life: her sad romance, last words and tragic death explained

Despite her skills at writing about love and romance enduring for centuries, Jane remained unmarried until her untimely day aged just 41. However, there was one man who appeared in her letters - who was the subject of the Anne Hathaway and James McAvoy romance movie Becoming Jane - Tom Lefroy. 

Jane was thought to have met Tom back in 1795, when she was 20. In her letters, she speaks fondly about him, but her writings don't suggest that there was any serious connection between the pair. 

However, there have been some suggestions that Tom's family didn't approve of the match, Jane's family having limited finances, and he married another woman, Mary Paul, in 1799. 

In a letter to her sister Cassandra while alluding to the relationship, she wrote: "At length the Day is come on which I am to flirt my last with Tom Lefroy, & when you receive this it will be over—My tears flow as I write, at the melancholy idea." 

Tom also spoke about his affection for Jane in a letter to his nephew, who said: "My late venerable uncle ... said in so many words that he was in love with her, although he qualified his confession by saying it was a boyish love. As this occurred in a friendly & private conversation, I feel some doubt whether I ought to make it public."

Much like her heroines in Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility, Jane's father was a gentleman, but this did not mean that the Austens were a wealthy family. 

Despite the incredible success of her novels, which she received during her lifetime, most notably for Pride and Prejudice, which was published in 1813, Jane was sadly never financially independent, and relied on her family's support.

Jane's life became increasingly solitary as she became older, with her health deteriorating over time. It was believed that she was suffering from Addison's disease, which caused her to eventually become bedridden and struggle with rheumatic pains. 

However, modern historians have suggested that other illnesses could have been the cause of Jane's death, particularly as she didn't mention key Addison's disease symptoms in her letters. It has also been suggested that she could have had a form of cancer, tuberculosis or lupus.

Although Jane finished Persuasion and Northanger Abbey during her illness, she left one novel, Sanditon, unfinished. It was first published in 1925 titled Fragment of a Novel Written by Jane Austen. The novel's conclusion has been reimagined on several occasions, and was also recently made into a TV adaptation in 2019.

Jane passed away aged 41 on 18 July 1817 while surrounded by her family. Her sister Cassandra wrote about her death in a letter to a friend, writing: "She felt herself to be dying about half-an-hour before she became tranquil and apparently unconscious. During that half-hour was her struggle, poor soul! 

"She said she could not tell us what she suffered, though she complained of little fixed pain. When I asked her if there was anything she wanted, her answer was she wanted nothing but death, and some of her words were, 'God grant me patience, pray for me, oh, pray for me!' Her voice was affected, but as long as she spoke she was intelligible."