Later it was suggested that parts 2 and 3 of it might have been finished in Petersburg in the early 1865, judging by the references to the local literary journals' repertoire of the time.
On March 6, 1865, Leskov informed Nikolai Strakhov in a letter: "I've got a large story, a novel almost - nothing tendentious, very distinct, - and it is called Vsyak svoyemy nravu rabotayet (Everybody Acts According to their Taste)".
Details of Leskov's life in Paris are there, as well as his memories of childhood in Kiev and an unhappy marriage, his ex-wife Olga Smirnova obviously serving as a prototype for Dolinsky's wife.
The author's favorite artists Murillo and Girodet de Roussy-Trioson's art serves here as a background for the characters' emotional condition.
One of the latter, artist Zhuravka, described as "a little man with big heart," formulates his views on the mission of arts in his disputes with nihilists Vyrvich and Shpandortchuk.