 Pontoppidan's 1889 review "Messias" and 1890 piece "Den gamle Adam" were anonymously published and triggered a controversy after being denounced as blasphemous.The publisher, newspaper editor Ernst Brandes, was fined 300 kroner for "Messias" in December 1891 and committed suicide in 1892.The three novels which are normally considered to be Pontoppidan’s main works were written from about 1890 to 1920.