First published anonymously in 1894, this wicked and sparkling satirical novel, whose leading characters were based on Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, was an instant succes de scandale. The reviewer for the Academy admitted that "you enjoy it, you cannot lay the book down," but depolored it as "an affectation of life and literature, of an abnormality, a worship of abstract and 'scarlet' sin": and the Saturday Review critic told of "allusions, thinly veiled, to various disgusting sins...freely scattered throughout the book, as well as personalities of the broadest description." The book was writhdrawn from circulation in 1895, but by that time the damage had been done.

In an essay-introduction, "Narcissus Exposed: Oscar Wilde and The Green Carnation," Stanley Weintraub shows how these first widely publicized inferences about Wilde's "unnatural" side affected the public, affected Wilde himself, and contributed to his downfall.