Several critics have suggested that Leonora, the female protagonist of The Torrent, closely resembles a Russian opera singer romantically linked with Blasco Ibanez shortly before the writing of the book. Leonora, whether patterned on a real-life character or not, is a well developed melodramatic heroine: Born in Valencia, her freethinking republican father, who was a doctor, abandons the region and moves to Milan where he wants his daughter to be trained in opera. After suffering untold misery, including rape, Leonora triumphs as a diva in Europe's opera houses. Recently widowed, she returns to her native Valencia, to her aunt's cottage, to recover from a life that has left her exhausted and alone. There she meets the young Rafael Brull, a deputy to the national parliament who falls madly in love with her. He is the son of a local cacique (political boss) and rich landowner. His widowed mother...