Per Olov Enquist (1934–2020)

Reading historical novels like this one, I find myself wondering why I don’t delve into this genre more often. Enqvist’s book is well-researched, opens up a part of my regional history I had no idea of - and reads like a thriller.

In Denmark in the middle of the 18th century, the nobility is holding the power. A string of weak kings, more interested in drinking and sleeping around than ruling, have in practice left the reins to the people around them. Strong powers of course wishes things show more remain this way. Therefor focus on the upbringing of the young Christian is on breaking him down. It’s quite horrid the brutal and contradictory treatment he goes through, and by the time he as a teenager inherits the throne he is psychotic and paranoid, broken and scared.

A Royal Physician is hired, with the specific task of looking after the king. The German Struensee is reluctant at first, but soon realizes the potential in this spot. Struensee is very involved in the Enlightenment movement, and after winning the king’s trust and channeling it through him, he quietly and methodically starts a Danish Revolution from his desk. He is changing things radically – cutting down funds for the army, giving legal rights to bastard children, reducing taxes, intorcucing freedom of speech. And he strikes up a strange friendship with the troubled young king, who is all too thankful to have someone else doing the ruling.

The other two major players in this novel are the young queen Caroline Mathilde, youngest sister to the mad king George of England, who is thrown into this retarded little backwater country and given a husband who is insane – but who realizes she is both capable and eager to exercise power. She becomes Struensee’s strongest ally, and his lover. And finally Guldberg, an upstart at the court, from common background like Struensee, but one who is working his influence on the other side of things. The reaction that is bound to come towards the ungodly conduct of the dirty English harlot and her German lover. The future, when everything is to be set right again.

Enqvist has a tone telling this mind-boggling story of philosophy, madness, idealism and power that invokes absolute confidence. There's no doubt this book is very well researched. But even when he must be guessing, he is utterly believable in his low-key matter of fact style, which still lends itself to a kind of poetry. The characters are wonderfully drawn in frailty and complexity. And the plot itself is often nail-biting and chilling suspense, even if the inevitable, tragic outcome is clear from the get-go.

A warning that there are some disturbing elements here –including cruelty to children. But if that doesn’t deter you, this is a read I’ll heartily recommend to anyone interested in historical fiction. show less

The life of the unfortunate Christian VII of Denmark (1749-1808) has long excited the curiosity of writers of all complexions, from Goethe to Dario Fo, although - despite the fact that one of the main characters was British - it doesn't seem to have been done very often in English yet (The lost queen (1969), by Norah Lofts is the only English version mentioned in the list on Wikipedia).

As Enquist tells it, the central characters are Christian himself, an intermittently lucid, show more mentally-disturbed young man who has become king at the age of 16 and been married shortly thereafter to an even younger English princess in whom he has no interest whatsoever; the queen, who is making up for a very sheltered upbringing by discovering the sexual power she can exert in her new role; Struensee, the idealistic young German physician (keen reader of Holberg and Rousseau) who accidentally finds himself in a position to deputise for the king, both in the queen's bed and in attempting to drag the backward and corrupt kingdom of Denmark kicking and screaming into the 18th century; and - naturally - an éminence grise, Guldberg, who is scheming against all of them. And equally naturally, it all ends in tears, as Enquist is clearly expecting it to.

Enquist is particularly interested in the opposition between the open, optimistic, and politically-naive Struensee and the secretive, vengeful and moralistic Guldberg, as expressed in the ways that both of them establish bonds with the confused and frightened Christian and react in their different ways to the potent sexuality (Enquist clearly insists on there being potent sexuality, even if that's not something you normally associate with Hannoverians...) of Caroline Matilda. This all gets tied in clever ways into the political currents of late 18th century Europe - the lofty ideals of the Enlightenment philosophes compromised by their association with people like Catherine of Russia and Frederick of Prussia, the cynical aristocrats who run Denmark for their own benefit and are happy to have a powerless king, the peasants whom nobody really cares about in practice...

Entertaining and well-written, but maybe a bit too predictable. show less

Knut Hamsun neve fogalom*: ő volt a norvégok írófejedelme, Nobel-díjjal kipreparált eleven halhatatlanság, a nemzet bölcsessége és büszkesége egy személyben. Aztán hopp, egyszer csak benácult, és a német megszállás idején olyan publicisztikákkal támogatta meg Hitler ideológiai haláltáncát, hogy pár Magyar Időkös újságíró azóta is az ő bronz mellszobrával támasztja ki a polcon a könyveket, el ne dőljenek. Mert eldőlnének – az a három finoman show more erotikus magazin meg az egy szem Wass Albert füveskönyv ugyanis hagyományosan nem áll meg a saját lábán. Aranybánya ez egy írónak – felemelkedés és aláhullás eposzba illő története, mese arról, hogy milyen ostoba tud lenni a bölcs, ha mindig csak a távolba néz, és nem veszi észre, ami az orra előtt zajlik. Enquist ráadásul nem pusztán ezt a morális prostitúciót vizsgálja, hanem beemeli a szövegbe Hamsun feleségét és gyermekeit is, így egy kifejezetten bergmani ízű családi pokoljárást is tollhegyre tűz, ahol a mélyen meghúzódó sértettségek és dugába dőlt elvárások mérge széteszi a szeretet kötelékeit.

Filmregény – következésképpen nagyon lehet ám haladni vele. Csupa párbeszéd, a leírás csak annyi, hogy vizuális keretbe tudja helyezni az olvasó a párbeszédek résztvevőit. Szikár szöveg, olyan hatást kelt, mintha nem is könyvet, hanem egy könyv csontvázát látnánk. Akad, akit ez zavarni fog, de én szerettem, hogy a rövid jelenetek és a szereplők dialógjai tág teret hagynak nekem a regény értelmezéséhez: szerettem, hogy nekem kell húst rajzolnom a csontokra. Élénk fantáziájú olvasóknak – különösen ha odavannak a morális feladványokért – nagyon ajánlom.

* Mondjuk, ha a google-ba beírjuk, hogy „knut”, akkor az első százötven találat egy híres jegesmedvét dob fel a híres norvég helyett – legyen ez intő jel a fasizmussal pettingelő írók számára. show less

The royal physician of the title is a man called Struensee, and the visit refers to the time he spent as effective regent of Denmark in 1771 and 1772, pushing through a vast swathe of Enlightenment-inspired reforms.

I knew nothing about this period of history before reading this. But even so I could tell that this was an inspired reimagining. Enqvist takes the dry historical record, and adds the passion back in - fear, betrayal, guilt. (The book is full of madness of different kinds, from show more broken-willed feeble-mindedness to a lust for power and control.) The narrative is laced with references to contemporary records which each give us glimpses of the extreme and chaotic events, but it's the passion and madness and theatre which start to make sense of them.

This might make the book sound like a historical romp, which it isn't. It's dense with images and metaphor, yet Enqvist maintains a dry and oracular tone throughout, as if he is trying to make rational sense of what happened - even though the book as a whole suggests that nothing in history makes sense if you ignore the human emotions involved. show less