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Austen ChatAuthor: Jane Austen Society of North America
Welcome to Austen Chat, the podcast of the Jane Austen Society of North America (JASNA). Join us each month as we interview scholars, authors, and subject experts on a wide range of topics related to Austens writings, her life and times, and more. There is always more to learn and enjoy about Jane! Language: en-us Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it Trailer: |
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Jane Austen & Hypochondriacs: A Visit with Sarah Marsh
Episode 34
Thursday, 2 April, 2026
Jane Austen's novels feature a number of characters we might describe as "hypochondriacs" today: Mr. Woodhouse, Mary Musgrove, and Mrs. Churchill, to name a few. Although she never used the word herself, Austen was adept at exploring how the worries and complaints of individuals preoccupied with their health affected the people around them.Professor Sarah Marsh joins us in this episode to discuss health and medicine in the Regency era, the parallels between the health of individuals and the health of the British nation in Sanditon, and Austen's reflections on her own declining health during the final months of her life.Sarah Marsh is an associate professor of English at Seton Hill University and director of the Jane Austen Summer Program. She has presented and published extensively on Austen, literature, and medicine, including the article “‘All the Egotism of an Invalid’: Hypochondria as Form in Jane Austen’s Sanditon.” Her forthcoming book, Novel Constitutions and the Making of Race: A Literary and Legal History of Slavery in the Anglophone Atlantic, 1688–1818, will be published by Oxford University Press.For an edited transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep34*********Visit our website: www.jasna.orgFollow us on Instagram and FacebookSubscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channelEmail: podcast@jasna.org
