Thomas Hardy - The Short Stories - An Introduction. Many giants of Literature originate from the shores of these emerald isles; Shakespeare, Dickens, Chaucer, The Brontes and Austen to which most people would willingly add the name Thomas Hardy. Far From The Madding Crowd, Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, The Mayor Of Casterbridge are but three of his literary masterpieces. But let us add to this his short stories. They are often overlooked as being the poor, under-developed relative of a greater work. But from writers of the calibre of Hardy this is just not so. He picks stories and creates characters that drive, meld and create pages that in their numerically shorter length are in fact the perfect length. Our stories are read for you by Richard Mitchley