Per Olov Enquist; trans. Tiina Nunnally
The Royal Physician’s Visit by Per Olov Enquist, translated from the Swedish by Tiina Nunnally, is a compelling historical novel set in the royal court of Denmark beginning in the 1760s.
The drama begins when the inept and seemingly mad monarch King Christian VII is assigned Johann Friedrick Struensee as his personal physician. Struensee is an intellectual German doctor who has embraced Enlightenment idealism. The two form a bond with Christian becoming increasingly reliant on Struensee to direct him. Eventually, Christian makes Struensee the de facto ruler of Denmark, granting him the power to issue decrees and reform institutions based on the principles of Enlightenment. Struensee abolishes torture, frees the press, reduces the size of the army, and holds even the rich and powerful accountable under the new laws.
Not surprisingly, Struensee makes powerful enemies within the establishment, including the Dowager Queen and the Machiavellian religious zealot, Count Guldberg. It doesn’t help his position that he has an affair with Christian’s wife, Queen Caroline Mathilde, and fathers a child with her. The nature of his liberal reforms, the speed with which he implements them, and his love affair with Queen Caroline eventually give his enemies enough ammunition to have him executed. All his liberal reforms and efforts are reversed after his death.
The novel is based on extensive historical research. Enquist cites letters and reports from various government officials, including foreign ministers and ambassadors to the Danish court. Christian is portrayed as an unruly sick child, prone to temper tantrums and incoherent ramblings. His childhood upbringing and education are designed to break his spirit and turn him into an obedient, obsequious puppet with the goal of creating a power vacuum to be filled by members of the court. He is subject to beatings, rote memorization of speeches, required to act a certain way, publicly humiliated, and beaten into submission. These pedagogical methods are successful in that Christian becomes pitiable, child-like, convinced he is acting in a play, and always in search of someone to direct him. What the court does not anticipate is the power vacuum so methodically created will be filled by Struensee.
The novel’s characters emerge as authentic, fully-developed, and unique individuals. They love and hate with a passion. They plot and scheme in a Danish court riddled with corruption and hypocrisy. They come alive. Christian is sympathetic, babbling, paranoid, weak, and delusional. The young Princess Catherine emerges as a strong, fearless queen. Struensee is an intellectual whose heart is in the right place but who moves too quickly to implement reforms. And Guldberg, who suffers from low self-image, justifies his cruelty by claiming he is saving Denmark from catastrophe. The novel concludes as it began with the British Ambassador to Copenhagen describing Christian’s obsequious behavior toward Guldberg while attending the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen in 1782, ten years after the execution of Struensee.
A blend of historical events with plausible embellishments, coupled with an intriguing narrative voice that probes into motives and asks rhetorical questions to engage the reader. A successfully executed and compelling read.