Chekhov - The House with the Mezzanine

A remarkable story of a love that fails to take place. An idle landscape artist, who sees everything through a big-picture lens, a strict older sister acting as father figure while virtue signaling at the artist's expense, a baby sister and her mother who are acolytes of the artist, all set in a beautiful country landscape worthy of the brought to life by Chekhov's pen. The story follows a very Chekhovian path where the protagonists don't act on their desires, we see a lot of symbolism, prognostication and innuendo, but not a lot of action. The fable at the end summarizes the setting nicely.