While reviews of Hardy's later novels typically split between conservative disapproval and progressive acclaim, the contemporary reception of Hardy's second collection of stories, first issued at Christmas 1890, was exceptionally uncertain. This monograph attempts to explain why by approaching the work from a book-historical viewpoint. It concludes that, though the collection shares modernist concerns via its materialist thematics of gender and sexuality as well its manipulation of alienated viewpoint and ironical tone, both its initial publishing format and residual literary form urge it in a counter direction, thus fissuring the work between contrary commitments to the traditional "tale" and modern "short story."