Torrents of Spring

Inception

Despite its fictional overlay, Torrents of Spring is inspired by the events of Turgenev's life during his 1838-1841 tour of the German States.

Although Fathers and Sons remains Turgenev's most famous novel, Torrents of Spring is significant in its revealing of the author's life, thoughts, and most intimate emotions.

Gemma

According to Turgenev's biographer Leonard Schapiro, the character of Gemma Roselli was inspired by an incident which took place while the future novelist was visiting Frankfurt in 1840. A young woman "of extraordinary beauty suddenly emerged from a tea-room to plead for help in reviving her brother, who had fainted." But, unlike Gemma, the young woman was Jewish rather than Italian and, unlike Sanin, Turgenev left Frankfurt that same night without getting to know her further.

Maria Nikolaevna

The character of Maria Nikolaevna Polozova is believed to have had two models.

The first was Turgenev's mother, Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva. According to Schapiro, Varvara Petrovna subjected her husband, her son, her servants, and her husband's serfs to systematic physical, emotional, and verbal abuse. All of this left permanent emotional scars upon her son and caused him to always gravitate towards abusive relationships.

The second model is believed to have been Eleonora Petersen, the German first wife of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev, with whom Turgenev "conceived some kind of romantic attachment" during his 1838 voyage from St. Petersburg to Lübeck. At the time, Eleonora was "returning to Munich with her children" and "died the following year". According to Schapiro, Turgenev's "correspondence with his mother suggests that he was in love with" Eleonora, "or fancied himself to be so, but that is as much as we know."

According to Schapiro, there are many indications that Torrents of Spring had "some deep personal meaning" for Turgenev. In a letter to his French publisher Hetzel, the author wrote of Maria Nikolaevna, "This she-devil seduced me as she seduced that nit-witted Sanin."

In response to a letter, criticizing the novel, from the niece of Gustave Flaubert, Turgenev expressed agreement that the second half of the novel, "was not very necessary", but explained, "I allowed myself to be carried away by memories."

Most revealingly, Turgenev told Isaac Pavlovski, "The entire novel is true. I personally lived and felt it. It is my own history." (French: "Tout ce roman-là est vrai. Je l’ai vécu et senti personnellement. C’est ma propre histoire.")

Composition

Turgenev likely began work on what became Torrents of Spring in 1870. Though originally planned as a short story it had expanded to novel length by the time it was finally completed in late 1871. It first saw publication in the January 1872 edition of the Vestnik Evropy (Herald of Europe), the major liberal magazine of late nineteenth century Russia. Though the novel was somewhat unusual for Turgenev in that it was nearly devoid of political or social themes, it enjoyed a great success from its first appearance. The issue of the Vestnik Evropy in which it was first published had to be reprinted, an unprecedented event in the history of Russian periodicals.

Plot

The story opens with a middle-aged Dmitry Sanin rummaging through the papers in his study when he comes across a small cross set with garnets, which sends his thoughts back thirty years to 1840.

In the summer of 1840, a twenty-two-year-old Sanin, arrives in Frankfurt en route home to Russia from Italy at the culmination of a European tour. During his one-day layover he visits a confectioner's shop where he is rushed upon by a beautiful young woman who emerges frantic from the back room. She is Gemma Roselli, the daughter of the shop's proprietress, Leonora Roselli. Gemma implores Sanin to help her younger brother who has passed out and seems to have stopped breathing. Thanks to Sanin's aid, the boy – whose name is Emilio – emerges from his faint. Grateful for his assistance, Gemma invites Sanin to return to the shop later in the evening to enjoy a cup of chocolate with the family.

Later that evening, Sanin formally meets the members of the Roselli household. These include the matriarch, Leonora (or Lenore) Roselli, her daughter Gemma, her son Emilio (or Emile), and the family friend Pantaleone, a rather irascible old man and retired opera singer. Over conversation that evening Sanin grows increasingly enamoured with the young Gemma, while the Roselli family is also well-taken by the young, handsome, educated, and gracious Russian. Sanin so enjoys his evening that he forgets about his plans to take the diligence on to Berlin that night and so misses it. At the end of the evening Leonora Roselli invites Sanin to return the next day. Sanin is also disappointed to learn that Gemma is in fact engaged to a young German named Karl Klüber.

The following day Sanin is visited in his room by Gemma's fiancé, Karl Klüber, and the still recovering Emilio. Klüber thanks Sanin for his help in assisting Gemma and resuscitating Emilio and invites Sanin on an excursion he has arranged the following day to Soden. That evening Sanin enjoys another enjoyable time with the Rosellis and becomes yet more taken by the charm and beauty of Gemma.

The next morning Sanin joins Klüber, Gemma, and Emilio for the trip to Soden. During lunch at an inn the party shares the restaurant with a group of drinking soldiers. A drunken officer among their number approaches Gemma and rather brazenly declares her beauty. Gemma is infuriated by this behaviour, and Klüber, also angry, orders the small party to leave the dining room. The enraged Sanin on the other hand, feels compelled to confront the soldiers, and going over declares the offending officer an insolent cur and his behaviour unbecoming an officer. Sanin also leaves his calling card, anticipating he might be challenged to a duel for his public words.

Characters (in order of appearance)

Dmitry Pavlovich Sanin – a young Russian nobleman of property and almost without family ties who is traveling in Europe after coming upon a modest inheritance and before taking up an official position in Russia

Gemma Roselli – the beautiful daughter of Leonora Roselli who was born and raised in Germany though still maintains her "clear, southern nature"; at the novel's outset she is engaged to Karl Klüber

Pantaleone Cippatola – an old man and former opera singer and a regular at the Roselli household, where he occupies a position somewhere between family friend and servant; in spite of his prolonged residence in Germany, he speaks little German

Emilio Roselli, or Emil – younger, and only, brother of Gemma; of weak constitution, he has romantic aspirations for the theatre but his mother wishes him to be set up as a merchant

Leonora Roselli, or Frau Lenore – matriarch of the Roselli household; originally from Parma, she is the widow of Giovanni Battista Roselli, an Italian from Vicenza, who settled in Frankfurt as a confectioner

Giovanni Battista Roselli – the now deceased founder of Roselli's Confectionary Shop who came – or fled – to Frankfurt from his native Italy (presumably due to his involvement in revolutionary activity) some twenty-five years before the main events of the story take place; upon his death he left behind a widow, one daughter, and one son

Karl Klüber – the young German fiancé of Gemma when the novel begins; "decorous, dignified, and affable," he nevertheless has the workaday air of an up-and-coming merchant

Baron von Dönhof – a German officer who fights a duel with Sanin early in the novel and then crosses paths again with Sanin in Wiesbaden

Herr Second Lieutenant von Richter – fellow officer of von Dönhof and his second in the duel with Sanin

Adaptations

A film based on the novel, written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, was released in 1989. The film, which competed for the Golden Palm Award at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, stars Timothy Hutton, Nastassja Kinski, and Valeria Golino.

There had also been two Soviet and one Czechoslovak adaptations.

Jarní vody (1968) by Václav Krška