He was one of the most revered figures in Estonian literature and is generally credited as being the country's first professional writer.

He spent a great deal of his life traveling abroad and he lived for some time in Berlin in the 1890s, where he was influenced by materialism and socialism.

His writings were also guided by the realism and naturalism of the French writer Émile Zola (1840–1902).

[2] In addition to being a prolific writer, he was also an outspoken critic of Tsarist rule and of the German landowners.

After his death in 1933, he became the first person to be interred at Metsakalmistu, in the Pirita district of Tallinn.