Paperback: An international sensation and bestseller, The Royal Physician's Visit magnificently recasts the dramatic era of Danish history when Johann Friedrich Struensee - court physician to mentally ill King Christian VII - 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, Per Olov Enquist, who is a novelist, playwright, and poet with works published in twenty-six countries.
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.
The Royal Physician's Visit (1999) won Sweden's most important literary prize - the August Prize - and France's Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger.
The Royal Physician's Visit is translated from the Swedish into the English by award-winning Tiina Nunnally.
Film: En Kongelig Affære (A Royal Affair) is a 2012 historical drama film focusing on the romance between the Queen and the royal physician. It was directed by Nikolaj Arcel starring Mads Mikkelsen, Alicia Vikander and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard and won the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival Award and the Satellite Award in 2012. Watch the official trailer:
I highly recommend reading the book and watching the film - both are outstanding.
Rating: 6/5
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