[2] Kumičić was born in Brseč, Mošćenička Draga (now in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County), a small town in Istria, then part of the Austrian Empire.

[1] After majoring philosophy at the University of Vienna, he returned to Croatia and worked as a teacher in high schools in Split and Zadar.

[1] From 1875 to 1878 he spent two years in Paris and six months in Venice, preparing for his French and Italian teaching examinations.

His works were therefore primarily influenced by realist and romanticist writers of the era such as August Šenoa, Alexandre Dumas and Eugène Sue.

[3] His literary work is usually divided into three thematic periods: the first period of his writing is marked by novels and short stories that involve romanticized descriptions of hard working Istrians' life - primarily fishermen, farmers and seamen; the bulk of his next literary phase typically deals with urban settings (the so-called city novels), where his naturalist tendencies are most prominent and which mostly involve themes of financial and moral chaos that Croatian bourgeoisie was depicted as caught up in.