First Love tells the story of Vladimir Petrovich, a sixteen-year-old Russian student, who becomes captivated by the enchanting twenty-one-year-old Princess Zinaida. Vladimir finds himself irresistibly drawn into her circle of suitors, despite recognizing the folly of his infatuation. First Love vividly portrays the dizzying sensation of first infatuation and the tumultuous allure of unattainable love. Spring Torrents, also known as The Torrents of Spring, begins with the introspective musings of Dmitri Pavlovich Sanin, a fifty-two-year-old Russian nobleman. While listlessly searching through old letters, Sanin finds a tiny garnet cross that reignites memories of a radiant and romantic liaison he had in his early twenties in Frankfurt with Gemma, the daughter of an Italian confectioner. A poignant tale of first love, betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness, Spring Torrents ranks as one of Turgenev’s finest literary accomplishments. This Warbler Classics edition includes a foreword by Joseph Conrad, a scholarly essay on reading Springs Torrents as a sociopolitical allegory of Russia’s present and future, and a detailed biographical timeline.
Table of Content
Contents
Foreword by Joseph Conrad
Preface to First Love
First Love
Preface to Spring Torrents
Spring Torrents
‘First Love Is Exactly Like Revolution’: Intimacy as Political Allegory in Ivan Turgenev’s Novella Spring Torrents by Alexey Vdovin and Pavel Uspenskij
Biographical Timeline
About the author
Alexey Vdovin is Associate Professor of Russian at HSE University and the author of articles and books on the history of Russian Literature in the age of Realism. Pavel Uspenskij is Associate Professor at HSE University; his research interests include nineteenth-century Russian literature, the poetics of Russian modernism and Soviet Culture.
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