In the works of Turgenev of the 1860s and 70s, there is often a mention of fog. This recurring motif acts as a comparison, a metaphor, a detail of the landscape, endowed with symbolic meaning. It becomes especially noticeable in Turgenev's "mysterious stories". The genre of " Ghosts "was designated by the writer as" fantasy"; Turgenev asked the reader not to look for any allegory or hidden meaning in the proposed fantasy, but simply to see in it a series of pictures connected with each other rather superficially. The connecting element in this series of paintings is a mysterious figure named Ellis. A number of fantasy episodes of" Ghosts " are united by the high (literally and figuratively) position of the hero in relation to human life (individual and collective), history, and the values of civilization. Ellis allows the hero to stand on the "point of view of eternity". Trying to unravel the nature of the mysterious Ellis, some saw in her an allegorical image of Turgenev's muse (Vetrinsky Ch. The Vampire Muse / / Turgenev's Work, Moscow, 1920), others - a spirit for which the hero of the story was a medium (Fischer V. M. Mysterious in Turgenev // A wreath to Turgenev. Odessa, 1919. pp. 91-104). It is important for us that Ellis appears to the hero as a being who embodies one of the innermost secrets of life, spirit, and the universe. And Turgenev seeks not only to solve this mystery, but also to discover its very existence, an unexpected invasion of reality by the forces of the world page 21 other. Ellis is neither spirit nor matter, she seemed to the hero "woven from a translucent milky mist" (Turgenev I. S. Poln. sobr. soch. i pis: In 28 vols. M.-L., 1960-1968. Vol. IX. P.81; further - only volume and p.). This image varies repeatedly in the work, it appears at the first appearance of a mysterious ghost: "Before me, draughty as a fog, a white woman stands motionless" (IX, 78). Disappearing, " the ghost quietly swayed forward, all mixed up, easily agitated like sm ... Read more