The new works, all pseudonymous, came hard on the heels of the June publication of ‘Three Edifying Discourses’. They were Philosophiske Smuler: eller en Smule Philosophi (Philosophical Crumbs or Just a Crumb of Philosophy), by Johannes Climacus, and then – just four days later – both Begrebet Angest: En simpel psychologisk-paapegende Overveielse (i retning af det dogmatiske Problem om Arvesynden) (The Concept of Anxiety: A Plain Psychologically Oriented Deliberation [in the Direction of the Dogmatic Problem of Hereditary Sin]), by Vigilius Haufniensis, and Forord: Morskabslæsning for enkelte Stænder efter Tid og Leilighed (Prefaces: Light Reading for Various Stations of Life as Time and Opportunity Permit), by Nicolaus Notabene.

Although they appeared almost simultaneously, so that towards their completion Kierkegaard was attending to several manuscripts at once, these oddly titled works published in June were begun at different times and with distinct aims in mind. The first was The Concept of Anxiety, which Kierkegaard began writing towards the end of 1843. But already the following March, with that project still unfinished, he was on the way with Philosophical Crumbs (henceforth referred to for convenience by its usual but rather staid and potentially misleading English title, Philosophical Fragments). In the light of what was said at the close of the previous chapter it is worth looking in the cultural setting for the ‘cues’ that triggered this intense activity, whatever it was that reawakened, now that the Regine episode had been exploited and its ethical implications grafted into Kierkegaard's thought, reflection on matters that had preoccupied him from the start.