The Torrents of Spring

Ivan Turgenev gave his generation a literary legacy that dealt with the extraordinary moral complexities of his age. 


A novel of haunting beauty, Torrents of Spring is a fascinating account of one of Turgenev's favorite themes: man's inability to love without becoming a slave to the destructive power of passion. 


It is considered by many to be Turgenev's greatest love story. 


Returning to Russia from a tour in Italy, twenty-three-year-old Dimitry Sanin breaks his journey in Frankfurt. 


There he encounters the beautiful Gemma, working in her parents' patisserie. 


He falls deliriously in love for the first time. 


Convinced that nothing can come in the way of everlasting happiness with his fiancée, Dimitry decides to begin a new life and sell his Russian estates. 


But when he meets the potential buyer, the captivating Madame Polozov, his youthful susceptibility makes him fall prey to a darker, ultimately fatal passion 


IVAN TURGENEV (1818–1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright known for his honest portrayals of Russian serfs in the feudal system of the nineteenth century. Unlike his contemporaries Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy, whose writings focused primarily on church and religion, Turgenev believed in the need for Russia to Westernize. He criticized the provincial society and political turbulence of his time through sophisticated and passionate prose. His novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction. He also wrote such masterworks as The Diary of a Superfluous Man, First Love, Torrents of Spring, King Lear of the Steppes, Smoke, and A Sportsman’s Sketches.