This truth was by no means recognized when "Laon and Cythna" first appeared before the public.

Hooted down, derided, stigmatized, and howled at, it only served to intensify the prejudice with which the author of "Queen Mab" had come to be regarded.
I have spoken of this poem under its first name of "Laon and Cythna".

A certain number of copies were issued with this title (How many copies were put in circulation is not known.

There must certainly have been many more than the traditional three; for when I was a boy at Harrow, I picked up two uncut copies in boards at a Bristol bookshop, for the price of 2 shillings and 6 pence a piece.); but the publisher, Ollier, not without reason dreaded the effect the book would make; he therefore induced Shelley to alter the relationship between the hero and his bride, and issued the old sheets with certain cancelled pages under the title of "Revolt of Islam".

It was published in January, 1818.