Proljetne vode
Spring Waters (1872) is a lyrical novel about first love, the transience of youth, and the impossibility of man to love without losing his innocence or freedom. A classic work of Russian realism about love that changes life but does not save it.
The story takes place in two times: in the 1840s in Germany and 20 years later in Russia. The main character, Dmitry Pavlovich Sanjin (or Sanin), a young Russian nobleman, travels through Europe and in Frankfurt (or Mainz) he meets the Italian Roselli family: the beautiful 19-year-old Gemma, her widowed mother and younger brother Emanuel. Gemma is engaged to a rich German man, Klüber, but Sanjin falls in love with her, and she with him. After dramatic events (a duel, the breakup of the engagement), Sanjin proposes to her and gets her consent.
However, love does not come true: Sanjin meets Maria Nikolaevna Polozova, a rich, seductive and manipulative widow who seduces him and drags him into a passionate adventure. Sanjin betrays Gemma, loses her forever and remains trapped in an empty, rich life with Maria – a symbol of slavery to passions and the loss of youthful purity.
The novel is introspective, melancholic, and autobiographical (Turgenev draws from his own experiences). The theme is the transience of the spring waters of youth: love is strong but short-lived, and man is left alone with the memory of what he could have had.
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