Torrents of Spring, also known as Spring Torrents (Russian: Вешние воды), is a novel written by Ivan Turgenev during 1870 and 1871 when he was in his fifties. The story is about a young 22-year-old Russian landowner named Dimitry Sanin who falls deliriously in love for the first time while visiting the German city of Frankfurt. After fighting an abortive duel with a rude soldier and winning the heart of the local girl who was the main object of his infatuation, the love-sick protagonist decides to sell off his estate in Russia in order to work at the girl's family's pastry shop and be close to his newfound love. Before he can be happily married, however, he goes away to attend to a business matter and falls prey to the allures of an older and more sophisticated woman.
This literary work, as an unhappy love story, is often understood by readers as a description of Turgenev's own failure in finding romantic love. The story is partly autobiographical with the main character Sanin representing Turgenev himself during his younger days when the author visited Frankfurt and other European cities outside his native Russia.
Turgenev's most famous novel is Fathers and Sons but Torrents of Spring is significant in its revealing of the author's thoughts and intimate emotions.
A 101 minute movie based on this novel was released in 1989 and stars Timothy Hutton, Nastassja Kinski and Valeria Golino.
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