[1] Her writings include Wrzos (Heather), Dewajtis, Lato leśnych ludzi (Summer of the Forest People), Straszny dziadunio (Eerie Grandpa).

Her parents were sentenced to confiscation of their family estate at Pieniuha in Vawkavysk and to deportation to Siberia for help given to the January uprising insurgents (storing weapons).

They settled in Warsaw, where they found themselves in a very difficult financial situation (her father worked at a tenement house and her mother for some time in a cigarette factory).

However, real improvement occurred in 1875, when Henryk Rodziewicz inherited the property Hruszowa in Polesie (1,533 hectares (3,790 acres) from his childless brother Teodor.

At the end of 1876, due to improvement in the family's financial situation, she was placed in the girls' lyceum in Yazlovets, Jazłowiec, run by the Congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose superior was Marcelina Darowska (beatified by John Paul II).

Staying at a school in Jazłowiec, where girls in a religious but patriotic atmosphere were prepared primarily for the future role of wife and mother, had a great impact on Rodziewiczówna.

In 1882 Maria Rodziewiczówna debuted under the pen name Mario in the third and fourth issues of Dziennik Anonsowy with two novelettes – Gama uczuć and Z dzienniczka reportera.

She used the same pen name in 1884 in Świt, edited by Maria Konopnicka, with a story entitled Jazon Bobrowski, and a humoresque (a short, lively piece of music) published in 1885, Farsa Panny Heni.

It is difficult to say when Helena Weychert, who Rodziewiczówna met in the Stowarzyszenie Ziemianek (landowners' association) moved to the estate as her life partner.

She also made several trips abroad: to Rome (for 500 rubles obtained as a reward for Dewajtis), 2-3 times to southern France, and at least once to Munich, Sweden and Norway.

In the years 1919–1920 she initiated a number of social activities in the area of Hruszowa, establishing an agricultural circle, building a steam room, and rebuilding the cheder in Antopol.

In the interwar period, she tried to continue her educational and social activities; among others, she organized the Polish House in Antopol and financed the construction of a floor at the Kobryn School in her name).

Rodziewiczówna had a critical attitude towards Jews based on her own experiences and observations of the environment, whom she considered exploiters (usury), who significantly contributed to the poverty of the Polesie village and the financial problems of the borderland landowners.

This has often been reflected in her works, featuring the character of an evil Jew, but some of them had examples of positive and kind people who help Poles in trouble (e.g. Jaskółczym szlakiem).

She left Warsaw after the surrender, spending a few weeks in Milanówek, and then heading to Żelazna, Aleksander Mazaraki, Jr's property near Skierniewice.