The monograph is devoted to the study of the dreams of the characters, their types and functions in the work, as well as the relationship that is found between the poetics of dreams, on the one hand, and the genre specifics and evolution of the novel, on the other. The main material in the development of this problem is the novels "Petersburg" by A. Bely, "The White Guard" by M. Bulgakov and "Invitation to Execution" by V. Nabokov, which are considered in comparison with the traditions of the Russian classical novel presented by the works of L.N. Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky.