Jane Austen, the master of the novel of manners, died in 1817 at the age of 41. While her novels like 'Emma' and 'Persuasion' are famous for their witty dialogue and happy endings, her final days were spent in significant pain, likely due to Addison's disease or Hodgkin's lymphoma. When her sister Cassandra asked her if there was anything she wanted, Austen’s final recorded words were: 'Nothing but death.' This stark, unsentimental end contrasts with the vibrant life of her characters. Despite her early death, she had already transformed the English novel from a form of melodrama into a sophisticated medium for social critique and psychological realism. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral, where her epitaph originally made no mention of her achievements as a writer, focusing instead on the 'extraordinary endowments of her mind.'