Dictionary.net

A Russian novelist; born in Bachmut, Yekaterinoslav, Feb. 14, 1855; died at St. Petersburg, April 5, 1888. He took part in the Russo-Turkish war, and was wounded at Charkow. He soon after finished his great work "Four Days", in which the sufferings and hallucinations of a wounded soldier are strikingly set forth. "A Very Little Story", "The Night", and several more novels, came from his pen during the next few years. He developed a tendency to melancholy (occasionally relapsing into insanity), traces of which are to be found in "Attalea Princeps" and "Night", two weird tales; and in the psychiatrical study of "The Red Flower". He had intervals of sheer mental blankness.