![]() ![]() 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. Later that evening, Sanin formally meets the members of the Roselli household. 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. Thanks to Sanin's aid, the boy – whose name is Emilio – emerges from his faint. Gemma implores Sanin to help her younger brother who has passed out and seems to have stopped breathing. She is Gemma Roselli, the daughter of the shop's proprietress, Leonora Roselli. 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. 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. 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. 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. ![]() 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. 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 originally planned as a short story it had expanded to novel length by the time it was finally completed in late 1871. Turgenev likely began work on what became Torrents of Spring in 1870. It is my own history." (French: "Tout ce roman-là est vrai. Most revealingly, Turgenev told Isaac Pavlovski, "The entire novel is true. 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." : 251 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." : 251 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." : 17–18Īccording to Schapiro, there are many indications that Torrents of Spring had "some deep personal meaning" for Turgenev. At the time, Eleonora was "returning to Munich with her children" and "died the following year". The second model is believed to have been Eleonora Petersen, the first wife of the poet Fyodor Tyutchev, with whom Turgenev "conceived some kind of romantic attachment" during his 1838 voyage from St. All of this left permanent emotional scars upon her son and caused him to always gravitate towards abusive relationships. ![]() According to Schapiro, Varvara Petrovna subjected her husband, her son, her servants, and her husband's serfs to systematic physical, emotional, and verbal abuse. The first was Turgenev's mother, Varvara Petrovna Turgeneva. ![]() The character of Maria Nikolaevna Polozova is believed to have had two models. 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. 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.Īlthough 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.Īccording 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. ![]()
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