Ann Veronica created a sensation when published in the autumn of 1909 because of the feminist sensibilities of the heroine and also because of the affair Wells was having with Amber Reeves, the woman who inspired the novel's eponymous character.
Although the novel now seems very tame, Ann Veronica was considered a scandalous work by many in its day and was denounced as "capable of poisoning the minds of those who read it" by The Spectator.[5]
Ann Veronica was included in the Modern Library in 1917, the year the publishing company was founded. Subsequent Modern Library editions were published in 1926, 1928, and 1933.
Virginia Quarterly Review published in 1930 a review by Frederick P. Mayer, in which he compared Ann Veronica to Maxim Gorky's novel Bystander, and wrote that ""Ann Veronica" is the type outline, not the individual story, of a young woman rebel... [Wells] preach[es] sermons, and ... debate[s]. But [he] ha[s] no artistic community with the novelist as an artist".[6]