The Citadel

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A Thing of Beauty (novel, 1956), ISBN 0-515-03379-0; also published as Crusader's Tomb (1956), ISBN 0-450-01394-4 During the First World War, Cronin served as a surgeon sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve before graduating from medical school. After the war he trained at hospitals that included Bellahouston Hospital and Lightburn Hospital in Glasgow and the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin. He undertook general practice at Garelochhead, a village on the River Clyde, and in Tredegar, a mining town in South Wales. In 1924 he was appointed Medical Inspector of Mines for Great Britain. His survey of medical regulations in collieries and his reports on the correlation between coal-dust inhalation and pulmonary disease were published over the next few years. Cronin drew on his medical experience and research into the occupational hazards of the mining industry for his later novels – The Citadel, set in Wales, and The Stars Look Down, set in Northumberland. He subsequently moved to London, where he practised in Harley Street before opening a busy medical practice of his own in Notting Hill. Cronin was also the medical officer for the Whiteleys department store at the time and had an increasing interest in ophthalmology.

An expectant public: 1948–2008 60 years of the NHS". Birth of NHS in Scotland. Scottish Government. 2008 . Retrieved 25 March 2013. The ethical issues raised by Cronin were also not neglected. Most medical schools began teaching in this area, and societies and institutes of medical ethics began to spring up. Medical ethics is now firmly established as a field of study, and literature can provide a focus for its discussions. Dr. Manson also has less positive characteristics that affect his personal and professional choices. Besides being a skilled doctor dedicated to his patient’s welfare, he is also overly proud and competitive. Many of the dramatic events revolve around which of these traits take prominence in Dr. Manson’s personal and career choices. I found myself often thinking of how pride is one of the seven deadly sins. I do like that Dr. Manson is portrayed as not overly heroic but as a man with faults. The reader will not always like Dr. Manson or his choices. However, I did find some of the switches in which of Dr. Manson’s traits became prominent to be a bit abrupt and melodramatic. This article is parodied near the end of William Gaddis's novel The Recognitions: see entry for 857.20 at https://www.williamgaddis.org/recognitions/35anno1.shtml. The character called "the distinguished novelist," who first appears on p. 846, is based on Cronin: see The Letters of William Gaddis (Dalkey Archive Press, 2013), p. 386.Cronin died on 6 January 1981 in Montreux and is interred at La Tour-de-Peilz. [17] Many of Cronin's writings, including published and unpublished literary manuscripts, drafts, letters, school exercise books and essays, laboratory books and his M.D. thesis, are held at the National Library of Scotland and at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.

Seduced by the thought of easy money from wealthy clients rather than the principles he started with, Manson becomes involved with pampered private patients and fashionable surgeons and drifts away from his wife. A patient dies because of a surgeon's ineptitude, and the incident causes Manson to abandon his practice and return to his principles. He and his wife repair their damaged relationship, but then she is run over by a bus and killed. The texts are the property of their respective authors and we thank them for giving us the opportunity to share for free to students, teachers and users of the Web their texts will used only for illustrative educational and scientific purposes only. A prodigiously fast writer, Cronin liked to average 5,000 words a day, meticulously planning the details of his plots in advance. [7] He was known to be tough in business dealings, although in private life he was a person whose "pawky humour... peppered his conversations," according to one of his editors, Peter Haining. [7] The wider ramifications of books such as The Citadel are also worth considering as a resource for teaching and learning. In the 1980s, while teaching medical ethics with Professor Robin Downie (Professor of Moral Philosophy) in Glasgow, we introduced students to literature to emphasise the broader dimensions of medicine. 3 These were poems, plays, stories and novels, all of which raised issues of the practice of medicine and health. They provided a forum for discussion and debate and encouraged reflection and the ability to articulate views. Thus literature can provide a focus for considering one’s own clinical practice and how personal views on clinical issues amongst doctors can vary. In addition, books, poems and plays can highlight issues related to the social determinants of health-poverty, employment and housing, and can demonstrate very effectively problems in lifestyle and their impact on well-being. For example there are some very powerful images created on issues of drunkenness and cigarette smoking, and the problems of HIV infection and its causation. Such texts can all be used to help the professions learn about such issues. MacPherson, Hamish (3 January 2021). "AJ Cronin: The doctor turned novelist whose heart always remained in Scotland". The National. Glasgow . Retrieved 15 January 2023.Jones R. AJ Cronin: novelist, GP, and visionary. Br J Gen Pract. 2015;65(638):479. doi:10.3399/bjgp15X686629

Cambridge Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/citadel. Accessed 31 May 2020. Over the centuries many novels, short stories and poems have been written about doctors: their interaction with those who are ill, and with the communities they serve to improve overall health. Some of these books reflect the high standards and quality of the medical profession while others show doctors in a different, less favourable light. I first read The Citadel by A. J. Cronin about thirty years ago, having been brought up as a medical student on Dr Finlay’s Casebook, a BBC radio and TV series based on the novella Country Doctor by the same author. I enjoyed The Citadel enormously and re-read it perhaps ten years ago, and at that time marked up almost thirty passages of interest. On the present occasion the re-reading was more holistic and I was searching for broader messages in the text. Episode 5: Andrew informs Dr Llewellyn that he intends to meet with the other medical assistants that evening and that he expects them to join forces in refusing to pay 20% of their income to him. However, to Andrew's dismay, during the meeting that follows he fails to gain the necessary support from his fellow medical assistants. In his despair at the hopelessness of his situation, Christine convinces Andrew to study for the M.R.C.P. qualification offering to help him with the language proficiency requirements. The arduous combination of work and study is stressful to Andrew, who takes his frustrations out on Christine. However, he travels to London and sits the examinations where his oral examiners are Sir Robert Abbey and Dr. Maurice Gadsby (both of whom feature again later in the series). He passes. Immediately on his return from London he is called to an accident in the mine, where, under dangerous and challenging circumstances, he amputates the trapped leg of a miner. Christine informs Andrew that she is pregnant. One morning, five months into her pregnancy, she mentions to Andrew that she is worried about the state of the bridge, and Andrew promises to ask the committee to do something about it. However, the bridge collapses when Christine is crossing it. Whilst Christine does not appear to suffer significant injuries to herself, she miscarries the baby and Dr. Llewellyn informs Andrew that she is unlikely to ever bear another child. Andrew's research into silicosis in anthracite workers is progressing well, and he applies for an M.D. on the basis of his thesis. His experiments involve testing silica on [guinea pigs, and there are local complaints about vivisection for which Andrew has no licence. An official from the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals comes and seizes the guinea pigs, and Andrew is brought before the local Committee under threat of dismissal. In his defence Andrew informs the committee that the blood they reported to have seen in his home laboratory was simply a chemical that he had spilt. He compares the continued use of white mice and canaries down the mine to his use of guinea pigs – both examples of sacrificing the lives of animals to save those of humans. Furthermore, he states that if his research is successful then miners and their families who suffer because of silicosis would have the benefit of receiving compensation. The committee votes, and the majority decision is that he should stay in his role. Andrew's response is to resign his position. He informs Christine that they will live in London instead. My mother is a doctor and somehow this book - and it's subsequent movie adaptation - had stayed with her all her life since she'd been first introduced to it. Therefore it came highly recommended. Hence there was no hesitation as to what one was to do upon finding it in the library of aforementioned crazy uncle.

A.J. Cronin: Biography on Undiscovered Scotland". www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk . Retrieved 13 August 2023. Ich suche Dich ( "I Seek You" – from play, Jupiter Laughs), directed by O. W. Fischer, featuring O.W. Fischer, Anouk Aimée, Nadja Tiller, and Otto Brüggemann Ethics, both medical and personal, is a central theme. How to live a life and the road toward finding one’s own way is movingly portrayed. Life’s ups and down, happiness and sorrow--both are here. The reader observes the allure of money and fame and the depths to which they can bring a person. This was a very important element of the story for me! Rivett GC. From Cradle to Grave, the first 50 years of the NHS. London: King’s Fund and www.nhshistory.net