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 aged 30 when executed. Wilde wrote the poem in mid-1897 while staying with Robert Ross in Berneval-le-Grand. The poem narrates the execution of Wooldridge; it moves from an objective story-telling to symbolic identification with the prisoners as a whole. No attempt is made to assess the justice of the laws which convicted them, but rather the poem highlights the brutalisation of the punishment that all convicts share. Wilde juxtaposes the executed man and himself with the line "Yet each man kills the thing he loves". Wilde too was separated from his wife and sons. He adopted the proletarian ballad form,