The Torrents of Spring
'The Torrents of Spring' Summary
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.
The following morning a friend of the offending German officer arrives early at Sanin's door demanding either an apology or satisfaction on behalf of his friend. Sanin scoffs at any notion of apologizing and so a duel is arranged for the following day near Hanau. For his second Sanin invites the old man Pantaleone, who accepts and is impressed by the nobility and honour of the young Russian, seeing in him a fellow “galant'uomo.” Sanin keeps the planned duel a secret between himself and Pantaleone, though the latter reveals it to Emilio. Departing the Roselli home that night, Sanin has a brief encounter with Gemma, who calls him over to a darkened window when she spots him leaving along the street. As they whisper to one another there is a sudden gust of wind that sends Sanin's hat flying and pushes the two together. Sanin later feels this was the moment he began to fall in love with Gemma.
The next morning on the way to Hanau, Pantaleone's earlier bravado has largely faded. Sanin does his best to embolden him. At the subsequent duel Sanin gets off the first shot but misses, while his opponent, the Baron von Dönhof, shoots deliberately into the air. The officer, feeling his honor has been satisfied, then apologizes for his drunken behavior, an apology Sanin readily accepts. Sanin feels somewhat disgusted afterward that the whole duel was a farce. Pantaleone, however, is overjoyed with the outcome. Returning to Frankfurt with Pantaleone and Emilio (who had secretly followed him to the duel site), Sanin discovers that Emilio has in turn told Gemma about the duel. Sanin is a little put off by the indiscretion of this pair of chatterboxes, but cannot be angry. Back in Frankfurt, Sanin soon learns from a distraught Frau Lenore that Gemma has cancelled her engagement to Klaus for no apparent reason than that he did not defend her honor sufficiently at the inn. Frau Lenore is frantic at the idea of the scandal this will cause and Sanin promises to talk to Gemma and convince her to reconsider. In Sanin's subsequent talk with Gemma, she professes her love for him but tells him that for his sake she will reconsider her estrangement from Klaus.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
RussianPublished In
1872Authors
Ivan Turgenev
Russia
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West. His first major publication, a short story collec...
Books by Ivan TurgenevDownload eBooks
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
The Search by Grace Livingston Hill
A simple act of kindness sets in motion an extraordinary journey of love, faith, and redemption. Beneath the starlit sky, amidst the shadows of a forg...
Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph by Frances Sheridan
Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph is an epistolary novel that follows the life of Sidney Bidulph, a dutiful woman who writes letters to her childhood fri...
The Elect Lady by George MacDonald
One of MacDonald's shorter and lesser-known novels, "The Elect Lady" yet contains wonderfully endearing characters, plot twists, love, and life lesson...
Honor of the Big Snows by James Oliver Curwood
Set in the stark beauty of the Canadian wilderness, "Honor of the Big Snows" tells the story of Jan Thoreau, a young musician whose arrival in a remot...
A Book of Bargains by Vincent O'Sullivan
In this spellbinding collection of short stories, O'Sullivan weaves a tapestry of dark bargains that leave readers questioning the boundaries of moral...
Selbstmordverein by Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow
Ein gar nicht düsteres Trauerspiel, in dem nicht nur ein verkrachter Baron, eine schöne Witwe, ein junger Gymnasiast und seine Freundin, die partout n...
Rouge et le noir by Stendhal
« Le Rouge et le Noir » est un roman réaliste de Stendhal qui explore les ambitions et les désillusions d'un jeune homme ambitieux, Julien Sorel, dans...
Fortunata y Jacinta: dos historias de casadas (Cuarta Parte) by Benito Pérez Galdós
Fortunata y Jacinta es una novela épica que explora las complejidades del amor, el matrimonio y las desigualdades sociales en la España del siglo XIX....
Imperialist by Sara Jeannette Duncan
Set in a small Ontario town at the turn of the 20th century, "The Imperialist" captures the complexities of Canadian identity amidst the push and pull...
Life and Gabriella: The Story of a Woman's Courage by Ellen Glasgow
Set against the backdrop of late 19th-century Richmond and New York City, "Life and Gabriella" follows the compelling journey of Gabriella Carr, a wom...
Reviews for The Torrents of Spring
No reviews posted or approved, yet...