Tuesday marks 250 years since Jane Austen's birth, and despite much scrutiny, we're still in the dark about the novelist's cause of death. Austen died in her sister's arms in 1817 at 41 after nearly a ...

Why do the works of Jane Austen still hold so much appeal 250 years after her birth? We ask members of the Jane Austen Society of North America as well as writers Sandra Cisneros and Brandon Taylor.