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პირველი სიყვარული. გაზაფხულის მღელვარე ნაკადები
მწერალი, დრამატურგი და მთარგმნელი, ოქსფორდის უნივერსიტეტის საპატიო დოქტორი ივან ტურგენევი (1818-1883) რუსული ლიტერატურის `ოქროს საუკუნის~ წარმომადგენელია. მას უწოდებდნენ `ყველაზე დახვეწილ პოეტს, რომელსაც ოდესმე პროზაული ნაწარმოები დაუწერია~. ალბათ სწორედ ამიტომ მოთხრობები – `პირველი სიყვარული~ და `გაზაფხულის მღელვარე ნაკადები~, უპირველეს ყოვლისა, არა ეპიზოდების, არამედ პერსონაჟთა ემოციების თანამიმდევრობაა, და ყურადღებას მუსიკალურობით იპყრობს.
ივან ტურგენევის ნაწარმოებები მსოფლიოს სხვადასხვა ქვეყანაში შექმნილ მრავალ სპექტაკლს, კინო- და ტელეფილმს დაედო საფუძვლად.
თარგმნა: ლილი მჭედლიშვილმა
ივან ტურგენევის ნაწარმოებები მსოფლიოს სხვადასხვა ქვეყანაში შექმნილ მრავალ სპექტაკლს, კინო- და ტელეფილმს დაედო საფუძვლად.
თარგმნა: ლილი მჭედლიშვილმა
290 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1888
10 people are currently reading
204 people want to read
About the author
Ivan Turgenev
1,823 books2,784 followersIvan Sergeyevich Turgenev (Cyrillic: Иван Сергеевич Тургенев) was a novelist, poet, and dramatist, and now ranks as one of the towering figures of Russian literature. His major works include the short-story collection A Sportsman’s Sketches (1852) and the novels Rudin (1856), Home of the Gentry (1859), On the Eve (1860), and Fathers and Sons (1862).
These works offer realistic, affectionate portrayals of the Russian peasantry and penetrating studies of the Russian intelligentsia who were attempting to move the country into a new age. His masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.
Turgenev was a contemporary with Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. While these wrote about church and religion, Turgenev was more concerned with the movement toward social reform in Russia.
These works offer realistic, affectionate portrayals of the Russian peasantry and penetrating studies of the Russian intelligentsia who were attempting to move the country into a new age. His masterpiece, Fathers and Sons, is considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century.
Turgenev was a contemporary with Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy. While these wrote about church and religion, Turgenev was more concerned with the movement toward social reform in Russia.
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
July 2, 2023
დროის გასაყვანი, მარტივად წასაკითხი 2 მოთხრობა წარსულის სიყვარულის ისტორიებსა და გრძნობებზე. პოტენციურად ვერდასრულებული გუდრიდის ჩელენჯისთვის +1 ჩითინგ წიგნია 😁.
3.5/5
3.5/5
January 10, 2024
He did not picture life's ocean, as do the poets, all astir with stormy waves. No, he saw it in his mind's eye as smooth, without a ripple, motionless and translucent right down to the dark sea bed. He saw himself sitting in a small unsteady boat, staring at the dark silt of the sea bottom, where he could just discern shapeless monsters, like enormous fish. These were life's hazards - the illnesses, the griefs, madness, poverty, blindness... Here he is, looking at them - and then one of the monsters begins to emerge from the murk, rising higher and higher, becoming ever more clearly, more repellently clearly, discernible... Another moment and its impact will overturn the boat. And then, once again, its outlines grow dimmer, it recedes into the distance, to the sea bed, and there it lies motionless, but for a slight movement of its tail...
January 26, 2016
I'm not entirely sure that this edition is the same as others and so, from the get-go, I should say that the three stories I am reviewing here are The Torrents of Spring, First Love, and Mumu.
The first of these, and the longest, along with the second not much shorter, resemble one another markedly in their themes of love and a femme fatale. Both have the same feel, being written in the third person from the point of view of the main character in the first instance, in the second in the first person, (if you get my drift), thus both presenting the perspective of the victims of sexual allure. However, the two stories are different in many of their aspects.
The Torrents of Spring has the feel of a novel, packed with incident and with a complex storyline. I don't want to introduce spoilers, so it suffices to say that the central character is the victim of the machinations of a less-than amiable woman who uses her beauty to wreak havoc amongst those around her. In spite of the dramatic theme - see my summary at the end of this review for more on that - there's an almost painterly feel to the story as Turgenev, intentionally or otherwise, presents us with descriptive vignettes that might be used as portrayals for some commissioned artist. These begin as watercolour still-life, but by the end take on the air of oil paintings in the more acute style of romanticism. It makes for vivid writing, and yet the style overall is easy and relaxed for all the thematic drama. Of the three stories, this is the most intense and yet that intensity is far-from blatant.
First Love presents us, at least for a while, with something of a mystery, rather spoiled for me personally as I guessed the outcome early on. The painterly feel is not so much in evidence. Instead, with a sparse story arc, we tend to get a better feel for the narrator here, a sixteen-year old who falls for the seductive wiles of a woman of 21. However, this woman is more amiable than her counterpart in the first story, playful and without ill-intent becoming, in the end, the victim of her own allure rather than making others the victim of it.
Mumu is a short short story, at least compared with the other two, and as with the first the writing is more dense having a higher level of incident packed into it than in First Love. In many ways it is markedly different from its companions with an omniscient narrator and a different theme, that of a man trapped in the feudal system, his life commanded by a capricious - and somewhat neurotic - elderly mistress, first in his being denied marriage to the woman he loves, (not that he was ever likely to be her husband), and then in his being denied his pet dog which gives its name to the title of the story.
The three stories (vaguely) described (for fear of spoilers), it's worth returning again to their most important commonality. All three are inconsequential. Turgenev sets up the potential for great drama in terms of the things endured by his main characters, but the drama never reaches any significant heights. Even a duel in the first story becomes a non-event. There's a sense here of stoicism in the face either of fates that the characters have no control over, or that they spoil through their own folly, or both. Where another writer may have piled on the emotion and had his or her characters standing windswept at the edge of some abyss contemplating their own ends at the unfairness of life, Turgenev has his getting on with the hand they've been dealt. Far from this being negative, it's refreshing in its naturalism and tends to make other writers seem vaguely hysterical in contrast to Turgenev, perhaps rightly so. All three stories have their 'Oh no, not that!' moment for the reader nonetheless - particularly the third for me, given my own predilections - and so the stories are far-from entirely relaxing.
In their lyrical stoicism, then, these three stories make for seemingly easy reading. They are packed with drama to be sure, but the melodrama that all too often accompanies it in fiction is absent, leaving us with writing which is somehow more powerful in retrospect than it seems at the time, a tonic in considering how literature tends, all too often, to present us with quite the reverse.
The first of these, and the longest, along with the second not much shorter, resemble one another markedly in their themes of love and a femme fatale. Both have the same feel, being written in the third person from the point of view of the main character in the first instance, in the second in the first person, (if you get my drift), thus both presenting the perspective of the victims of sexual allure. However, the two stories are different in many of their aspects.
The Torrents of Spring has the feel of a novel, packed with incident and with a complex storyline. I don't want to introduce spoilers, so it suffices to say that the central character is the victim of the machinations of a less-than amiable woman who uses her beauty to wreak havoc amongst those around her. In spite of the dramatic theme - see my summary at the end of this review for more on that - there's an almost painterly feel to the story as Turgenev, intentionally or otherwise, presents us with descriptive vignettes that might be used as portrayals for some commissioned artist. These begin as watercolour still-life, but by the end take on the air of oil paintings in the more acute style of romanticism. It makes for vivid writing, and yet the style overall is easy and relaxed for all the thematic drama. Of the three stories, this is the most intense and yet that intensity is far-from blatant.
First Love presents us, at least for a while, with something of a mystery, rather spoiled for me personally as I guessed the outcome early on. The painterly feel is not so much in evidence. Instead, with a sparse story arc, we tend to get a better feel for the narrator here, a sixteen-year old who falls for the seductive wiles of a woman of 21. However, this woman is more amiable than her counterpart in the first story, playful and without ill-intent becoming, in the end, the victim of her own allure rather than making others the victim of it.
Mumu is a short short story, at least compared with the other two, and as with the first the writing is more dense having a higher level of incident packed into it than in First Love. In many ways it is markedly different from its companions with an omniscient narrator and a different theme, that of a man trapped in the feudal system, his life commanded by a capricious - and somewhat neurotic - elderly mistress, first in his being denied marriage to the woman he loves, (not that he was ever likely to be her husband), and then in his being denied his pet dog which gives its name to the title of the story.
The three stories (vaguely) described (for fear of spoilers), it's worth returning again to their most important commonality. All three are inconsequential. Turgenev sets up the potential for great drama in terms of the things endured by his main characters, but the drama never reaches any significant heights. Even a duel in the first story becomes a non-event. There's a sense here of stoicism in the face either of fates that the characters have no control over, or that they spoil through their own folly, or both. Where another writer may have piled on the emotion and had his or her characters standing windswept at the edge of some abyss contemplating their own ends at the unfairness of life, Turgenev has his getting on with the hand they've been dealt. Far from this being negative, it's refreshing in its naturalism and tends to make other writers seem vaguely hysterical in contrast to Turgenev, perhaps rightly so. All three stories have their 'Oh no, not that!' moment for the reader nonetheless - particularly the third for me, given my own predilections - and so the stories are far-from entirely relaxing.
In their lyrical stoicism, then, these three stories make for seemingly easy reading. They are packed with drama to be sure, but the melodrama that all too often accompanies it in fiction is absent, leaving us with writing which is somehow more powerful in retrospect than it seems at the time, a tonic in considering how literature tends, all too often, to present us with quite the reverse.
April 29, 2022
მსუბუქად საკითხავი და ალეგორიებით სავსე ნოველებია.
ეს არის ტურგენევის მხატვრული დაუმორჩილებლობის ჟესტი იმ რუსული ეპოქისადმი.
ორივე მოთხრობის გენიალურობა მდგომარეობს იმაში, თუ როგორ უხეშად ღალატობს იგი მკითხველთა მოლოდინს.
ეს არის ტურგენევის მხატვრული დაუმორჩილებლობის ჟესტი იმ რუსული ეპოქისადმი.
ორივე მოთხრობის გენიალურობა მდგომარეობს იმაში, თუ როგორ უხეშად ღალატობს იგი მკითხველთა მოლოდინს.
April 3, 2019
"She knew how to tell a story … a rare gift in a woman, and especially in a Russian one !"
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"It’s really curious … A man informs one and in such a calm voice, “I am going to get married”; but no one calmly says to one, “I’m going to throw myself in the water.” And yet what difference is there ? It’s curious, really."
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"Weak people never put an end to things themselves — they always wait for the end."
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"… if you think of it, nothing is stronger in the world … and weaker — than a word !"
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"Everything’s grown so loathsome to me … I would have gone to the other end of the world first — I can’t bear it, I can’t get over it …. And what is there before me !… Ah, I am wretched…. My God, how wretched I am !"
- from “First Love”
"I did not want to know whether I was loved, and I did not want to acknowledge to myself that I was not loved … I burnt as in a fire in her presence … but what did I care to know what the fire was in which I burned and melted — it was enough that it was sweet to burn and melt."
- from “First Love”
"It was a strange feverish time, a sort of chaos, in which the most violently opposed feelings, thoughts, suspicions, hopes, joys, and sufferings, whirled together in a kind of hurricane. I was afraid to look into myself … I was afraid to take stock of anything; I simply hastened to live through every day till evening …"
- from “First Love”
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"It’s really curious … A man informs one and in such a calm voice, “I am going to get married”; but no one calmly says to one, “I’m going to throw myself in the water.” And yet what difference is there ? It’s curious, really."
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"Weak people never put an end to things themselves — they always wait for the end."
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"… if you think of it, nothing is stronger in the world … and weaker — than a word !"
- from “The Torrents of Spring”
"Everything’s grown so loathsome to me … I would have gone to the other end of the world first — I can’t bear it, I can’t get over it …. And what is there before me !… Ah, I am wretched…. My God, how wretched I am !"
- from “First Love”
"I did not want to know whether I was loved, and I did not want to acknowledge to myself that I was not loved … I burnt as in a fire in her presence … but what did I care to know what the fire was in which I burned and melted — it was enough that it was sweet to burn and melt."
- from “First Love”
"It was a strange feverish time, a sort of chaos, in which the most violently opposed feelings, thoughts, suspicions, hopes, joys, and sufferings, whirled together in a kind of hurricane. I was afraid to look into myself … I was afraid to take stock of anything; I simply hastened to live through every day till evening …"
- from “First Love”
April 19, 2012
I love Turgenev. In my every day life I am strongly attracted to pastoral scenes and he creates these so well. He is also a master at capturing the emotional whirlwind of youth and the blindness of lust. Torrents of Spring has a love story, a duel, and betrayal all wrapped up in a well-packaged novella. First Love makes one wonder at the nature of Man and somewhat mirrors the first story but with its own peculiar twist. The final work, Mumu, reads more like a folktale and while not spectacular it is a short, pleasant read about the peasant life of pre-revolution Russia. While probably more along the lines of 3.5 stars in terms of quality, I can't help but round up with Turgenev. Go ahead and pick this one up.
October 15, 2017
A handsome young Russian from the minor landowning nobility and the beautiful daughter of Italian shopkeepers meet and fall in love at her family's shop in Frankfurt in 1840. True love does not follow a true course, especially after a predatory Russian heiress sets her sporting sights on the young man. It's a bittersweet tale full of absolutely believable characters and told with limpid simplicity. Turgenev reportedly based the story very much on his own experiences, which likely helps account for the sense of realism present through most of the narration.
Actually read an edition of Torrents of Spring alone published by Clean Bright Classics, which does not appear to be listed on Goodreads. It was a nicely done translation by Constance Garnett.
Actually read an edition of Torrents of Spring alone published by Clean Bright Classics, which does not appear to be listed on Goodreads. It was a nicely done translation by Constance Garnett.
March 18, 2013
"The Torrents of Spring" may be minor Turgenev, but it remains the work of a master storyteller. The rise and considerable fall of 22 year old Dimitri Pavlovitch Sanin to head over heels love with a young German-Italian teenager in 1840 at first seems a conventional love story. But an unexpected meeting with an old schoolmate and his wealthy, domineering wife turns Sanin's life careening towards a surprisingly tragic trajectory. This was a book club selection and well liked by my friends. Recommended as a good introduction to Turgenev.
October 1, 2020
როცა წავიკითხე, ისეთი სავსე ვიყავი გრძნობებით, მიკვირს რომ არაფერი დავწერე.
ძალიან ლამაზია - თხრობაც, სიუჟეტიც, ამბავიც, პერსონაჟებიც, ემოციებიც და სიტყვებიც, ასე მელოდიურად რომ მისდევენ ერთმანეთს თარგმანშიც კი.
ძალიან ლამაზია - თხრობაც, სიუჟეტიც, ამბავიც, პერსონაჟებიც, ემოციებიც და სიტყვებიც, ასე მელოდიურად რომ მისდევენ ერთმანეთს თარგმანშიც კი.
February 8, 2025
I really wish I had enjoyed The Torrents of Spring, First Love, and Mumu more, as this was my first meaningful foray into Russian literature, but I truthfully found these stories predictable and uninspiring. The characters and plots felt underdeveloped, though I'm sure this is due, in part, to the brevity of these stories, and Turgenev's prose didn't captivate me. I do, however, think these three stories had something interesting to say about regret, and Turgenev consistently uses dramatic irony to great effect. If I had to pick, I'd say Mumu is my favorite story from the collection. It was terribly sad, and I like how it read like a folktale and gave insight into Russia's serfdom.
In summary, I wouldn't read The Torrents of Spring, First Love, and Mumu again or recommend it to a friend, but I might pick up Turgenev's better-known novel, Fathers and Sons.
In summary, I wouldn't read The Torrents of Spring, First Love, and Mumu again or recommend it to a friend, but I might pick up Turgenev's better-known novel, Fathers and Sons.
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November 25, 2020من بين الثلاث روايات اظن ان رواية اسيا هي الاقل مستوى و الاعلى مستوى كانت الحب الاول ف ايفان تورغينيف قام بخلق شخصية جذابة و ساخرة و غير بمهتمة لعشاقها و هي شخصية زينايدا التي عذبت الفتى صاحب 16 سنة و انتهى بها المطاف الى حب والده الذي بدوره لم يحبها كما ارادت كما صور احاسيس الحب الاول الحقيقي تصويرا مثيرا يجعل كل من مر بتجربة الحب الغير المتبادل يظن نفسه هو من كتب تلك الكلمات
اما فيوض الربيع ف قد كانت رائعة خاصة في البداية و كالعادة ايفان تورغينيف يختار بطلة الراوية فتاة فائقة الحسن يقع بطل الرواية في حبها اول ما يلمحهها و لكن بطريقة غريبة بعد ان تبادله جيما نفس الشعور يذهب الى فتاة اخى و يندم في الاخير و هذا ما لم يرق لي
اما فيوض الربيع ف قد كانت رائعة خاصة في البداية و كالعادة ايفان تورغينيف يختار بطلة الراوية فتاة فائقة الحسن يقع بطل الرواية في حبها اول ما يلمحهها و لكن بطريقة غريبة بعد ان تبادله جيما نفس الشعور يذهب الى فتاة اخى و يندم في الاخير و هذا ما لم يرق لي
October 15, 2020
Typical shocking Turgenev twist at the end that leaves you feeling like your soul has been sucked out of your body through your mouth and choked up on the page ! Love it ! Bisous ! In this house we STAN Turgenev 😚 makes me wanna reread first love & fathers and sons again
April 4, 2024
Finished reading a collection of novellas by Turgenev: First Love, Spring Torrents and Mumu. Vignettes of victims, ingénue, femmes fatales, betrayals, and the destructive nature of passion. All the stages of man's life passed in order before his mental gaze, and not one found grace in his eyes.
May 12, 2021
Great book
April 18, 2023
სასიამოვნო საკითხავია,ისეთი გაზაფხულის დილას ფინჯან ყავასთან ერთად რომ წაიკითხავ და გულში სითბო ჩაგეღვრება..გაზაფხულის მღელვარე ნაკადები >>>
June 22, 2023
Cliched, predictable love stories. Not many snippets of the wisdom or wow storytelling either.
July 31, 2025
Love can blur your vision.
I would have liked more chapters about beautiful Gemma and less of the seductress.
A younger narrator would have been better suited for these characters.
I would have liked more chapters about beautiful Gemma and less of the seductress.
A younger narrator would have been better suited for these characters.
December 14, 2024
I read Torrents of Spring.
@petemarchetto's review:
'here's an almost painterly feel to the story as Turgenev, intentionally or otherwise, presents us with descriptive vignettes that might be used as portrayals for some commissioned artist. These begin as watercolour still-life, but by the end take on the air of oil paintings in the more acute style of romanticism. It makes for vivid writing, and yet the style overall is easy and relaxed for all the thematic drama. Of the three stories, this is the most intense and yet that intensity is far-from blatant.'
I love this review so much because he is so right. Torrents of Spring reads like a painting. Its always great to read an author who is stylistic and floral. I loved the love in here, a warm spring haze. It was guarded but gentle.
I do think the ending felt a bit rushed.It was like walking in the meadows, straight into a sink hole. But I have never been for the siren archetype in literature so maybe it was that. But after more reflection I noticed that the confession of first relationship was also just like that. Maybe love and lust are like that, you control until it controls you.
Overall, really enjoyed this book. Made me excited to read more Russian sentiment on love. namely Dovteyesky's White Nights
@petemarchetto's review:
'here's an almost painterly feel to the story as Turgenev, intentionally or otherwise, presents us with descriptive vignettes that might be used as portrayals for some commissioned artist. These begin as watercolour still-life, but by the end take on the air of oil paintings in the more acute style of romanticism. It makes for vivid writing, and yet the style overall is easy and relaxed for all the thematic drama. Of the three stories, this is the most intense and yet that intensity is far-from blatant.'
I love this review so much because he is so right. Torrents of Spring reads like a painting. Its always great to read an author who is stylistic and floral. I loved the love in here, a warm spring haze. It was guarded but gentle.
I do think the ending felt a bit rushed.It was like walking in the meadows, straight into a sink hole. But I have never been for the siren archetype in literature so maybe it was that. But after more reflection I noticed that the confession of first relationship was also just like that. Maybe love and lust are like that, you control until it controls you.
Overall, really enjoyed this book. Made me excited to read more Russian sentiment on love. namely Dovteyesky's White Nights
October 26, 2012
This is a sweet almost short story of 180 pages written in 1870, about Dimitri, a young Russian landowner, who travels to Frankfurt. He falls in love with Maria, a young Italian woman, who with her mother and brother runs a sweets shop. Dimitri fights a duel with someone who insults her honor, and decides to sell his land in Russia to finance the marriage. He runs into one of his friends married to a very wealthy woman. She seduces him; he leaves Maria after getting her to break up with a German merchant. The story begins and ends with Dimitri as an old man realizing his folly, he is lonely but Maria is happily married to someone else. Everyone is foppish,a good social commentary on the silliness of conventions whether it be duel or the pretension of the German merchant or the food addiction of the cuckolded husband. These foibles gives some gentle chuckles.
January 1, 2012
Read this via Kindle because Philip Roth had mentioned it in an interview he did for Esquire. Overall, I liked it, though you have to adjust for the sentiments (sentimentality?) of the period. In some ways I thought that the shorter stories (First Love and Mumu) were better than the longer one (Torrents of Spring), although all of them are fine works of craft with many acute human observations.
Spoiler alert . . . I thought that the build-up to the hero's downfall in Torrents was too long, given how short the payoff from it was. In a sense, everything from the downfall on seemed rushed and pat.
Next up for me from Turgenev: Fathers & Children.
Spoiler alert . . . I thought that the build-up to the hero's downfall in Torrents was too long, given how short the payoff from it was. In a sense, everything from the downfall on seemed rushed and pat.
Next up for me from Turgenev: Fathers & Children.
April 18, 2014
The social conventions and stylisation of this 19th century novel now appear a bit stale, but this timeless tale of love lost and redemption remains extremely powerful and affecting.
I found this passage the be particularly masterful: "We will not attempt to express the feelings [he] experienced...they are too deep and too strong and too vague for any word. Only music can reproduce them."
I found this passage the be particularly masterful: "We will not attempt to express the feelings [he] experienced...they are too deep and too strong and too vague for any word. Only music can reproduce them."
February 10, 2014
My version only included the novella, The Torrents of Spring, which I think was recommended on Short Story Thursday. It seemed fairly conventional and predictable at first, but the characters quickly acquired depth and complexity. The writing, even in translation, was fresh and lively, and then the story took an unexpected turn that changed everything. Must read more Turgenev.
September 16, 2012
I thought that the second two stories worked better than the first, but there was a terse power in all of them. Fathers and Sons is a superb book. These weren't quite as good, but were still well worth reading.
June 20, 2014
Enjoyed. Pretty quick read.
April 1, 2013
Snoozefest. I think I've grown intolerant of classics.
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