Although never proven, it is widely believed that the true author of the book was Oscar Wilde, an important and earnest Irish writer. Given the publication date, the tome could have been written in the can, where Wilde was serving time for being altogether too happy during the later Victorian period – a behavior seen as disrespectful to Queen Victoria who was on month 456 of the traditional one-year period of mourning observed by even the most pious of women of the era.