Anastasiia Verbitskaia became both famous and infamous after the enormous commercial success of her six-volume Kliuchi schast'ia (1909-1913; translated as The Keys to Happiness, 1999). The title of this novel could be applied to much of her prose fiction, which attempted to define what constituted "happiness" for contemporary women--whether it was work, marriage, family, sex, or another "key." She gained even greater renown when this novel was turned into a motion picture for the first time in 1913. Yet, to appreciate her entire career and its distinctive trajectory, one must first consider her earlier writings, which she started publishing in 1887 and which, until the early twentieth century, fit into the category of serious "high-brow" literature. Starting in 1901, however, she made several decisions about her career that changed both the nature of her writing and her reputation.

Verbitskaia was born Anastasiia Alekseevna Ziablova on 11 February 1861 in the provincial city of Voronezh...