Product Description

This thrilling novel of a doctor's life has been the subject of a Mobil Masterpiece Theatre dramatic series on PBS. "Cronin's distinguished achievement. . . . No one could have written as fine, honest, and moving a study of a young doctor as "The Citadel" without possessing great literary taste and skill".--"The Atlantic Monthly".

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1424446 in Books
• Published on: 1983-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover

Customer Reviews

Fine novelistic treatment of British medicine during the 1930s
This nicely written novel by A.J. Cronin (1896-1981) is an excellent entrée into the world of British medicine in the 1920s and `30s, a world in which a character in his 50s can be described as "elderly," and in which doctors specializing in lung diseases are regularly portrayed cigarette in hand. Cronin was himself a Scottish doctor who practiced in South Wales after World War I and who, like his protagonist Andrew Mason, investigated lung diseases of miners. Much of the impressive characterization and physical description in this book has the ring of personal observation.

With considerable narrative skill, Cronin tells the familiar story of gaining the world but losing one's soul. The characters and development are mostly believable, although Mason's sudden reconversion from materialism to idealism takes a bit more willing suspension of disbelief than I'm used to providing novelists. Cronin, although not profound, introduces a number of clever touches, such as having Mason, at his materialistic nadir, excoriate his wife for reading the Gospel of Luke--St. Paul's "beloved physician."

Why should good men suffer while evil men prosper?
I am a premedical student completeing my 3rd year of college. I read this book because it was recommended to me as one of those books that aspiring doctors should read before entering the profession.

The story is a chronological account of Manson's life from his graduation from college, through his professional life as a physician in 1920's-1930's England. The book sketches Manson's change from his schoolboy idealism to cynical medical profiteer and his final return to the high ethical and medical standards with which he begun his medical career.

Throughout the book, the reader will consistently encounter two major themes. First is the resistance of the highly conservative medical establishment of the 1920's England to any sort of change illuminated by the advancement of science. Manson again and again butts heads with his fellow doctors, patients and medical societies when he uses "unorthodox" treatments that actually deliver clinical results as oppose to the cod liver oil and patented concoctions that deliver no results except to line the wallets of greedy doctors.

The second theme is the dishonesty of many in the medical establishment. By pandering to rich patients, by telling people what they want to hear, by sucking up to social elites while ignoring those in actual plight, a dishonest doctor stands to profit immensely. On the other hand, an honest doctor who delivers the sad, untolerable, but ultimately true diagnosis is shunned as a quack. Witness the rich middle class wives who are nothing but hypochondriacs mooning over charlatans promising them cures with their patented cures that are nothing but colored water. Then compare that to their shock and abhorence at Dr. Manson's abrasive but true diagnosis that the only thing wrong with them is their fat, lazy, sedamentary lives.

Being a reader or a patient it might be easy to to criticize Dr. Manson for his fall into the ranks of such evil men. However, unless one has suffered through the insanely long, difficult and expensive process of being a doctor, one cannot truly understand the frustration that Manson felt seeing less qualified colleagues who pander to patients drive in luxury automobils while he himself have barely bread to eat.

Although much has changed for the better since this book was written by A.J. Cronin in the 1930's, the reader is reminded that the same evils that existed back then exist now today. Flashy, expensive treatments pander to those diseases like aging skin and sagging [...] will ultimately have their patrons. Yet if the reader has learned anything from this book, its that the gruffy advice he gets from his physician who recommends nothing but an asprin and a good nights rest may be the least thing he wanted to hear, but will be the best and most honest advice.

the Citadel
When I first picked up the Citadel, I wasn't sure how much I would like it. The version I own is old, crumbly, with the gold of the title scuffed and faded. Looking at the book in my hands, I couldn't imagine that the exploits of the hero, Andrew, would resonate with me.

To the contrary, as a person about to go into clinic for the first time, I sympathized with and came to a profound understanding of his character. Perhaps what was most surprising to me was that the issues he faces in his medical practice are truly the same as the issues a new doctor would face today, from the uncaring five-minute sessions with patients, to prescriptions for no reason, to the paucity of the medical system in impovershed areas, to the tendency of the profession to pander to pharmaceutical companies. In the end, the dark underbelly of the medical profession presented in Cronin's novel is literally identical to that of the medical profession today.

At the same time, we see examples of caring, skilled and thoughtful medical professionals in Andrew and his best friend.

Although the medical details weren't the main point of the novel, I found them to be the most involving and interesting. If you can stand lots of 'darling's and old-fashioned and slightly cloying manners of address, the relationship between Andrew and Christine is really one of the highlights of the novel; their courtship is perfectly awkward and uncomfortable, their early marriage suitably serene, and their slow trip down as Andrew slowly becomes everything he hated about the medical profession is understandable, from the character's point of view.

I must say that the ending, which I won't spoil here, was considerably dramatic - maybe too much so - but overall, the story was enchanting, incredibly involving and exciting at points (blowing up the sewer system!), and filled with enough romance that never quite stepped over the line in terms of its sweetness. Andrew was a perfectly well-balanced character, noble and intelligent yet prone to fits of temper or arrogance. Overall, I was startled to find out just how much I could relate to the character and his situation. Definitely worth a read on a rainy afternoon. :)