Prefaces appeared on June 17, 1844, the same day as The Concept of Anxiety. The pseudonymous author, Nicolaus Notabene, refers to himself in the text simply as N. N. These initials correspond, whether by accident or design, to the Latin phrase “nomen nescio,” or “I do not know the name,” which was a typical form of anonym. As the simple title implies, the work is a series of prefaces without the books to which they are prefaces. The author is purportedly a henpecked husband whose wife has forbidden him from pursuing his passion to be a writer, an activity which she takes to be a sign of marital infidelity. While he is thus obliged to desist from writing actual books, he tries to slip out of the prohibition on a technicality, i.e., by writing prefaces. This is purportedly the origin of the eight prefaces, which constitute the eight chapters of the work.

There is evidence that Prefaces was a somewhat ad hoc construction. From Kierkegaard's Nachlaβ, it is clear that he had written most of the prefaces previously for specific purposes before he conceived of the idea for the work itself. Preface I was a reworking of what was originally a satirical text on Heiberg under the title, “A New Year's Gift,” which was to appear at the New Year of 1843–44. Preface II was taken from a draft of a book-review that Kierkegaard planned to write on Christian Winther's Four Novels.