On the final page of this story, the barely discernible appearance of the heroine ("...one of the walking <...> suddenly raised her head covered with a white shawl, shielding the candle with her hand, fixed her dark eyes into the darkness...") next to a detailed portrait of Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna ("...all in white, long, thin-faced, in a white ruffle with a gold cross sewn on it on her forehead, tall, slowly, faithfully walking with downcast eyes, with a big candle in his hand..."). Why did Bunin, who carefully and sparingly selected every word when writing "Clean Monday", need such extravagance in depicting the episodic character of the story? To answer this question, first, with small abbreviations, we will give an extensive monologue of the heroine of the story, which hides the key to understanding the whole Bunin's work: "And she spoke with a quiet light in her eyes: - I love Russian chronicles, Russian legends so much that until then I reread what I particularly like, until I memorize it by heart. "There was in the Russian land a city called Murom, in it the autocrat- page 19 There was a pious prince named Pavel. And the devil put a flying serpent in his wife to commit fornication. And this serpent appeared to her in human nature, very beautiful"<...>. So God tested her. " When the time came for her blessed death, this prince and princess begged God to repose to them in one day. And they conspired to be buried in a single coffin. And they ordered to carve two coffin beds in a single stone. And they put on the same monastic garb at the same time..." This fragment of the chronicle, which is not directly related to the plot of "Pure Monday" and clearly splits into two almost separate passages, is charged with great explanatory power. The first passage contains a commentary-an explanation of the mysterious relationship between the hero and the heroine, as the heroine realizes them, in one of the episodes of "Clean Monday" directly likening t ... Read more