 In these works he established on his own terms a Danish version of the "broad description of society" novel in the tradition of Balzac and Zola.Centred on a hero he paints a picture of Denmark in the era of the Constitutional Struggle between Conservative and Liberals, rising industrialisation, cultural conflicts and awakening revolutionary movements.Pontoppidan's last large novel "Mands Himmerig" (1927, "Man’s Heaven") is an almost desperate description of the crisis of a Danish intellectual at the time of the outbreak of World War I.

Pontoppidan also wrote many short novels and long tales in which he discussed political, psychological and sexual themes.