Anton Pavlovich Chekhov 
Black Monk, and Other Stories 

Chekov seems to me the prime example of the writer who writes without tricks… and his stories always come alive and are most original & varied, and impossible to imitate… tho he has influenced many. The Black Monk presents a problem written about by many… but Chekhov does it without using a single word of the condescending diagnostic vocabulary… so that the character, & what enlightens & torments him, transcend the condition from which he can be said to suffer. (Goodreads)