The Torrents of Spring

About the book

In Torrents of Spring, a small object draws Dmitri Sanin back to a journey through Frankfurt and his meeting with Gemma, the daughter of an Italian confectioner's family. What begins as an incident during travel develops into an attachment that makes an entirely different life seem possible. Turgenev follows the vulnerability of that possibility as Sanin enters another social and emotional atmosphere. This volume also contains First Love, in which a young narrator tries to understand his fascination with an older girl, and Mumu, centred on a deaf and mute servant and the dog he befriends. The three narratives give unequal power and imperfect understanding distinct forms. Their retrospective and intimate perspectives make feeling vivid while keeping its consequences more complicated than the person experiencing it can initially recognize.

• Memory and desire
• Unequal power
• Emotional vulnerability

Why read it

For three contrasting narratives that make the intensity of attachment inseparable from dependence, memory, and incomplete understanding.

Torrents of Spring, First Love, and Mumu · translated by Constance Garnett