In this important new book, Guy and Small develop a new account of literary creativity in the late nineteenth century, one which combines concepts generated by text-theorists concerning the embodied nature of textuality with the empirical insights of text-editors and book historians. They pay particular attention to the theoretical relationship between a work and its versions, examining how an understanding of the history of a work 's textual embodiments has implications for how critics value and identify it. Examining poetry, fiction, non-fictional prose and drama, this volume addresses complex questions about the nature of literary value and the formation of the canon through a discussion of textual materiality rather than materialism or ideology (as has habitually been the case).