Man and one's space of existence are in interaction with each other. Space influences and determines the peculiarities of one's perception. But man is also looking for a suitable organic place of existence. This peculiarity also applies to literary characters. At the end of the nineteenth century, European culture underwent rapid changes due to industrialization, the development of communication system, and urbanization. Many philosophers point to the spiritual crisis, describing which they make use of such concepts as culture, civilization, and nature. The opposition of the urban and the rural environments is becoming more pronounced, and the urban environment is perceived as contradictory and chaotic, while opportunities to harmonize the personality experiencing crisis are being sought in the rural environment. The problem of relations between the urban and the rural environments entered also Latvian literature, it was addressed by such well-known authors as Janis Akuraters, Fricis Barda, Edvards Virza, Viktors Eglitis, Antons Austriag, Andrejs Upitis and others. The aim of the present study is to reveal the peculiarities of the dichotomy of the urban and the rural environments in the Latvian fiction of the first decades of the twentieth century, by using one Latvian author's writings as an example. Such an approach allows not only for considering the peculiarities of the depiction of the urban and the rural environments, but also for analysing the subjective and objective reasons determining the emergence of these peculiarities. It is important that the prose of Antons Austrins (1884-1934) features emphasized spatiality: descriptions of the space are detailed and reflect the peculiarities of the characters' personalities. The peculiarities of the spatial structure and the semantics of Austrins' prose were determined both by the European cultural context (philosophers' findings, works by other authors) and individual peculiarities, which, in turn, stemmed from life experience and environmental, educational, family, psychological and emotional peculiarities. The depiction of the urban and the rural environments in Austrins" prose has a wide semantic spectrum, which develops in the interaction of the spheres of nature, civilization and culture. The most important feature of Austrins' perception of the world is the ambiguity of the assessment of phenomena. Nature, civilization and culture exist in close interaction, but there is often a contrast between these spheres, which is related to the human concept of Austrins' prose. The author's characters are torn apart by contradictions, so they cannot find a suitable place to live: in a rural environment, they see opportunities to harmonize their personalities, but they cannot stay there for long and tend to a city where cultural and civilization interact.
