The Royal Physician's Visit: A Novel [Paperback]

Per Olov Enquist (Author), Tiina Nunnally (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 19, 2002

An international sensation, The Royal Physician's Visit magnificently recasts the dramatic era of Danish history when Johann Friedrich Struensee -- court physician to mad young King Christian -- stepped through an aperture in history and became the holder of absolute power in Denmark. His is a gripping tale of power, sex, love, and the life of the mind, and it is superbly rendered here by one of Sweden's most acclaimed writers. A charismatic German doctor and brilliant intellectual, Struensee used his influence to introduce hundreds of reforms in Denmark in the 1760s. He had a tender and erotic affair with Queen Caroline Mathilde, who was unsatisfied by her unstable, childlike husband. Yet Struensee lacked the subtlety of a skilled politician and the cunning to choose enemies wisely; these flaws proved fatal, and would eventually lead to his tragic demise.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* As the 1760s became the 1770s, there was a revolution in Denmark, though the monarchy remained in place. The turnabout took place at the king's elbow, as a German, Johann Friedrich Struensee, the royal physician, issued 632 decrees in King Christian VII's name. Struensee's ability to do this was greatly enhanced by the fact that the king was deranged as the result of severe handling, including daily corporal punishment throughout his childhood, by the aristocrats who actually ran Denmark. But Struensee's was only a paper revolution, and when he fell in love with the teenage queen, the youngest sister of England's George III, his fate was sealed. Overthrown by a cabal led by the puritanical professor-turned-bureaucrat Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Struensee was publicly executed in 1772. The queen was divorced and exiled, and Guldberg became Christian's manager and Denmark's prime minister. Enquist explosively expands this parenthesis in Danish history into an ironized romantic tragedy of a very high order, one that fills the reader with horror and pity on every page. The Swedish novelist's method is to begin 10 years after Struensee's fall, then retrace the "Struensee era," as it came to be called, by probing the characters of four principal players--Christian, Guldberg, Struensee, and Queen Caroline Mathilde--each of whose perspectives, even the king's, he makes intelligible and occasionally even sympathetic. A towering achievement. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

The Los Angeles Times An extraordinarily elegant and gorgeous novel.

The Wall Street Journal The Royal Physician's Visit is a masterpiece.

The New York Times Book Review Enquist's principal characters are realized with a vividness and subtlety that place the book in the front ranks of contemporary literary fiction...

Time magazine Enquist...turns [an] actual historical incident into an enthralling fable of the temptations of power -- and a surprisingly poignant love story.

Booklist A towering achievement.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Washington Square Press (November 19, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743458036
• ISBN-13: 978-0743458030
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #738,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > History > Europe > Denmark

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary masterpiece, December 1, 2001

By 

Linda Oskam "dutch-traveller" (Amsterdam Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Royal Physician's Visit (Hardcover)

This book is based on an historical event. In 1766 Christian VII becomes king of Denmark. Christian is an anxious boy, made mad by the members of his court. Two years later Johann Friedrich Struensee becomes his personal physician. Very soon he gains the trust of the young king with his quiet behaviour. The king starts to give more and more power to Struensee, who, more or less against his own will, becomes the center of power. In a period of only a few years Struensee issues more than 600 decrees that improve the life of the ordinary Danes and make Denmark a frontrunner of the Enlightenment movement. However, Struensee does not realize how much resistance his actions cause in the surroundings of the king. In 1772 he is arrested and tried on the basis of his relationship with the queen.

We follow the events through the eyes of a number of people: Christians private teacher Reverdil, the young queen Caroline Mathilde, Struensees rival and successor Guldberg and Struensee himself.

Per Olov Enquist has succeeded in writing a monumental literary novel: the actors are real, full of doubt, passion and deceit. The description of the way in which the mind of the young Christian is broken is most impressive. A king has absolute power, but is not supposed to actually exercise it, so the whole court conspires to break his mind. What remains in the end of an intelligent, normal boy is a mental wreck who lives in a fantasy world.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Madness of Christian VII, March 4, 2003

By 

John Van Wagner (Upper Montclair, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Royal Physician's Visit: A Novel (Paperback)

Insanity was a singular problem for the crowned heads of Europe during the 18th century. While the travails of the Hanoverian King George III are well-documented, there were other psychiatrically afflicted monarchs who, whether due to some unfortunate gene or to the infectious subversion of enlightenment philosophy, injected the politics of their courts with the logic of madness. One such monarch was Christian VII of Denmark.

Per Olav Enguist's historical novel documents a turbulent period in Danish history, a time when medeival institutions bumped up against modern free-thinking with transformative, and sometimes explosive, results. It's a well-crafted work, laying out the history with insight and clarity, all the while painting complex and realistic characters in shades of grey. The book chronicles the rise of the royal physician Struensee, a disciple of the enlightenment who finds himself, through almost random selection, at the center of Denmark's political maelstrom. Though his ultimate demise is revealed at the outset, Struensee's journey through the looking glass at the Danish court, and the price he pays for his part in bringing the world to enlightenment, make for an engrossing read.

Central to Struensee's tenure as the main adviser to Christian VII was his affair with Christian's queen, Caroline Mathilde of England. This unfortunate consort could never seem to escape from the madness of either her times or her family. She was the sister of George the III, and her marriage to Christian, which involved one conjugal experience and one baby, never rose above the infantile level at which the Danish king could operate.

At times sensual and desperate, at others filled with the weight of impossible expectations and hopeless risks, the story of Struensee and his increasingly forceful paramour spills off the pages of the book with resigned determination. Struensee uses his time in power to rewrite Denmark's social code, infuriating the powers of court, and makes himself, through his passion for justice and for Queen Caroline, an easier and easier target for destruction.

Enquist's style is somber and instructive, his language plain but filled with complexity. He makes people and events come alive with spare sentences that speak volumes about the inevitability of freedom and the costs in imposes. As for the nature of logic, insanity, and the sanctity of free throught, he leaves the reader to draw his own conclusion.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Caught in a web of idealogy, September 22, 2002

By 

Luan Gaines "luansos" (Dana Point, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Royal Physician's Visit (Hardcover)

In the cold and dank corridors of power in the North, King Christian VII cannot escape his petite size or his madness, and his court is in chaos. But it is the Age of Enlightenment. In a futile search for his own enlightenment, Christian comes to the attention of a philosopher/physician, Dr. Struensee. Attracted to the pitiful King in a way he cannot fathom, Struensee steps into history, unsure of his part, save to comfort and aid the suffering mad King. During Strunsee's short attendance on the King, a mere four years, great reforms are begun: unrestricted freedom of the press, religious freedom, tariffs to the state instead of the royal household, a ban on torture during interrogations. Later the French Revolution would adapt some of the same reform measures enacted in Denmark during this period of social upheaval.

Strunsee's great failure is that he is drawn into a love affair with Christian's young Queen, Catherine Mathilde, sister of England's Charles III. She actually gives birth to Struensee's child, a girl, later claimed by the King as his own. As well, the physician lacks the ability to protect himself from his many foes at court. When Christian's mental illness, actually madness, creates a vacuum in the center of power, Strunsee fills the void, to the good of the kingdom. But when his enemies inevitably prevail, others are prepared to strike him down and assume the mantle, demanding Strunsee's execution.

The beauty of this novel is in the writing: people and events are presented in such a way as to give a glimpse into the insanity of Christian's reign, the vacuum in leadership and the strange aura of madness that permeates the court. There is a real sense of the unreality that infects everyone at the top, the secrecey and intrigue, illustrating with frightening clarity the true peril in having a puppet for a leader.