First edition, limited to 1,000 copies. Octavo. Bound in the publisher’s white buckram, lettered and decorated gilt, in the original green paper dustwrapper. A near fine copy in a very good dustwrapper. Bookplate to front pastedown.
 
The first edition of an infamous Wilde forgery.
 
The Introductory Note states that Wilde wrote this work in 1894 “as a personal gift to the author's friend and friend of his family, Mrs. Chan Toon” Mrs Chan Toon was the married name of “Miss Mabel Cosgrove, the daughter of Mr Ernest Cosgrove of Lancaster Gate, a friend of Sir William and Lady Wilde, and herself brought up with Oscar and his brother Willie.”
 
This introductory note is followed by a letter, purportedly written by Wilde to Mrs Chan Toon, in which he presents her with the typescript of the present work.
 
However, shortly after Methuen published the book, Wilde’s bibliographer Christopher Millard sued them, claiming that both the typescript and the letter were forgeries. It transpired that Cosgrove had previously tried to sell Millard forged Oscar Wilde letters, and that she had written the typescript herself and sent it to Methuen.