About the work
Comedy in three acts by Ivan Turgenev, first performed on 14 October 1849 at the Alexandrinsky Theatre in St Petersburg. It was the first of Turgenev's plays ever to reach the stage, while several of his other dramatic works were held back by the censors.
Plot
The fifty-year-old official Moshkin has taken in the penniless orphan Masha and arranged her engagement to the young Vilitsky. Pressed by his career-minded superior von Fonk, Vilitsky breaks off the match rather than tie himself to a woman without means, publicly humiliating Masha. To save her reputation, the ageing Moshkin finally offers to marry her himself.
Cultural significance
As the first of Turgenev's plays to reach the stage, The Bachelor opens his slim body of dramatic work, which would reach its best-known title only later with A Month in the Country.