History of modern literature Puccini's opera "La Bohème" was staged, as was Chekov's play "The Seagull". H. G. Wells published "The Time Machine" and "The Island of Dr. Moreau". William Morris died 3 October. Mark Twain published "Tom Sawyer, Detective". Alfred Jarry, only 23 years old, wrote his highly influential play "Ubu Roi", which is often cited as a forerunner to the Theatre of the Absurd. In 1897 Bram Stoker published "Dracula". H.G. Wells published "The Invisible Man". In 1898 Henry James published "The Turn of the Screw". H.G. Wells publishes "The War of the Worlds". Oscar Wilde published "The Ballad of Reading Gaol".
The Ballad of Reading Gaol of a steady income which he did not outlive, as he died less than four years after the Ballad first appeared. It has been suggested that Wilde was, to some degree, inspired by poem IX in A. E. Housman's "A Shropshire Lad" (1896), which alludes to the hanging of condemned prisoners: <poem>They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail: And trains all night groan on the rail Although there is no specific documentation to show Wilde's active revising after the appearance of the first edition, there were some slight changes made in the second edition, which was printed only two weeks