Torrents of Spring

Torrents of Spring, also known as Spring Torrents ( Veshniye vody), is an 1872 novella by Ivan Turgenev. It is highly autobiographical in nature, and centers on a young Russian landowner, Dimitry Sanin, who falls deliriously in love for the first time while visiting the German city of Frankfurt. Written during 1870 and 1871, when Turgenev was in his fifties, the novel is widely held as one of his greatest. 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.