At the time when anti-obscenity leagues were flourishing in America, the creators of the Modern Library marketed the series as a daring collection of modern classics. The first Modern Library list in 1917 included controversial French novels such as Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert and Mademoiselle Fifi by Guy de Maupassant. Another controversial title was H. G. Wells's coming-of-age novel, Ann Veronica. When the novel first appeared in 1909, many readers were shocked by the heroine's rebellious attitude. At the beginning of the narrative, Ann Veronica lives the sheltered life of a middle-class Victorian girl. She studies biology at a women's college, but her father expects her to find a husband or stay at home. Ann Veronica then runs away to enrol as a science student at Imperial College, London. Revolted by the lack of opportunity for women, she becomes a suffagist determined to live an independent life, and elopes with her married biology lecturer. Wells's novel appeared in the Modern Library nearly at the same time as a collection of essays on Darwinian theory, Evolution in Modern Thought. This mix between a scientific text and a scandalous novel about a young female scientist exemplifies the original positioning of the Modern Library – a collection that promised to tackle all aspects of modernity, from the ‘woman question’ to eugenics and reproduction.