The realist author Martin Kukučín (born Matej Bencúr) contracted cholera as a teenage boy. He also learned about it during his medical studies at the Faculty of Medicine in Prague (1885– 1893). The testimony of Martin Kukučín provided in his short story Dies Irae describes the onset, spread and symptoms of cholera in great detail. It is also a psychological probe about the existentially perceived attitudes of the story’s protagonists. As a realistic author, he strives to faithfully reproduce and faithfully record reality.