This paper discusses the way in which the short story as a literary genre has developed, with specific reference to the works
of Chekhov, Mansfield, Hemingway and Carver. It refers this development back to the treatment of
realism by these
authors, examining how this differs from realism in the novel. It examines the devices of the above authors in order to portray a sense of reality that only the short story is capable of doing, through the very compactness of its form.