The article provides an analysis of phenomena of phonetic symbolism in a literary text. Special atten-tion is paid to the color-sound aspect, i. e. to the power of sounds to trigger specifi c color associations and latent connections of a sound image with the non-sound one. The analysis was performed on the fairy novel “Scarlet Sails” by A. S. Grin. This novel was chosen because it is the brightest implementa- tion of the imaginative world of the author and allows to determine the general emotional and imagi-native content without diffi culties. The analysis has shown that the color tone painting effect exists not only in poetic, but also in prosaic texts and functions as an artistic-expressive means underlining the general emotional-imaginative content of the work. As the research has shown the colour tone painting effect exists not only in the poetic but also in the prose text and functions as the artistic-expressive means underlining the general emotional-imaginative content of the work.