This work is textual study of Hardy’s four volumes of short stories, Wessex Tales , A Group of Noble Dames , Life’s Little Ironies and A changed Man and other stories . It examines the history of the stories’ composition and revision from manuscripts through serial publications, galleys, revisions and collected publications, all stages of which show significant alterations. The book focuses on the publication of the stories up to and including the definitive Wessex edition, later editions have not been described except where Hardy was already known to have introduced revisions. The findings of this study arise from collation of all the forms likely to have played a role in the development of the stories.