Thomas Hardy publishes his novel The Mayor of Casterbridge, which begins with the future mayor, Michael Henchard selling his wife and child at a fair

Joseph Conrad becomes naturalized as a British subject and continues his career at sea in the far East

Sherlock Holmes features in Conan Doyle's first novel, A Study in Scarlet

23-year-old Irish author William Butler Yeats publishes his first volume of poems, The Wanderings of Oisin

The Fabian Society publishes Essays in Socialisman influential volume of essays edited by Bernard Shaw

Scottish anthropologist James Frazer publishes The Golden Bough, a massive compilation of contemporary knowledge about ritual and religious custom

9-year-old Daisy Ashford imagines an adult romance and high society in The Young Visiters

A Gaelic pressure group, the Highland Association, is founded to preserve the indigenous poetry and music of Scotland

Oscar Wilde publishes his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in which the ever-youthful hero's portrait grows old and ugly

Thomas Hardy publishes his novel Tess of the Durbervilles, with a dramatic finale at Stonehenge

Oscar Wilde's comedy Lady Windermere's Fan is a great success with audiences in London's St. James Theatre

W.B. Yeats founds the National Literary Society in Dublin, with Douglas Hyde as its first president

W.B. Yeats publishes a short play The Countess Cathleen, his first contribution to Irish poetic drama

Bernard Shaw's first play, Widowers' Houses, deals with the serious social problem of slum landlords

Mr Pooter is the suburban anti-hero of the The Diary of a Nobody, by George and Weedon Grossmith

French-born artist and author George du Maurier publishes his novel Trilby

Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book surrounds the child Mowgli with a collection of vivid animal guardians

Oscar Wilde's most brilliant comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest is performed in London's St. James Theatre

Oscar Wilde loses a libel case that he has brought against the marquess of Queensberry for describing him as a sodomite

Oscar Wilde is sent to Reading Gaol to serve a two-year sentence with hard labour after being convicted of homosexuality

H.G. Wells publishes The Time Machine, a story about a Time Traveller whose first stop on his journey is the year 802701

English poet A.E. Housman publishes his first collection, A Shropshire Lad

Somerset Maugham publishes his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, based on the London life he has observed as a medical student

English author Bram Stoker publishes Dracula, his gothic tale of vampirism in Transylvania

Henry James moves from London to Lamb House in Rye, Sussex, which remains his home for the rest of his life