The paper describes the essence of I. Franko's prose as a psycho-onthological and socio-cultural phenomenon, that took a long time to be created and appeared due to many factors of the writer's spiritual life: the tireless hard work, the desire to be a highly educated person and reach the broadest possible range of human interests in his activity, constant refi nement of literary taste, etc. In the realm of prose the writer worked for over 40 years (which is symbolical!), starting from the

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... 1872 school year, when he wrote school tasks for the teachers of literature, till 1913. During this time the writer wrote 10 novels and tales and about half a hundred works of short prose (stories of different kinds, essays, fairy tales, etc.). Thus, Franko perceived his writing as a manifestation of the internal need of labor, which could enable a wide range of people to get accustomed to intellectual work. In his creative work Franko saw a clear goal, which he directed to the future, imagining it to be a soil which would give a generous crop. Franko considered himself as a propaedeutic, who prepares the nation for future cultural achievements. The roots of many Franko's characters and prose forms should also be sought in the early childhood of the writer, a son of a village blacksmith and poor noblewoman. The greatest influence on his literary taste, as he himself admitted, had gymnasium teachers Ivan Verchratskyi (biologist and litterateur), who supplied the young schoolboy with books from his own library, and Julian Turchynskyi (writer and critic), but direct impetus to writing was given by the example of gymnasium friends – Izydor Pasichynskyi and Dmytro Vintskovskyi. The researcher also made an attempt to periodize Franko's prose and singled out 3 periods of its progress: 'youthful romanticism', scholarly and 'ideal' realism and the section of modernist searches.