This article deals with two historical novels by prominent contemporary Swedish author Per Olov Enquist written with thirty years interval. «The Mag- netist’s Fifth Winter» (1964) and «The Royal Physician’s Visit» (1999) are both staged in late XVIIIth century Europe and are saturated with Enlightenment ideas and tropes. The main theme in both novels can be described as «the genius and the crowd», as both protagonists are outstanding personalities and exercise big influence on the surrounding people one being so called magnetist and the other being Danish king Christian the VII’s physician.
The main objective of this article is to compare and analyze stylistic and ideological modes of Enquist’s pseudo-historical fiction staged in the XVIIP century Germany and Denmark. The article’s point is that Enquist manages to combine and harmonize Enlightenment’s humane pathos and values with postmodern modes of depiction as well as with cinematographic technique. Major consideration is given to depiction and role of the human body and to the problem of faith and atheism as they are presented in both novels.
