The Citadel (novel)
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The Citadel is a novel by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1937 (in Britain by Victor Gollancz Ltd., July, and in the US by Little, Brown & Co., September), turned into a 1938 film, with at least one American (1960) and another BBC (1983) television adaptation (the BBC series was broadcast on PBS the next year, as a Masterpiece Theatre presentation).
[edit] Plot summary
The book tells the story of a young, idealistic Scottish doctor, Andrew Manson, whose first job is in an industrial South Wales valley town. Shocked by the conditions, he works to improve matters and meets and marries Christine, a school teacher. They later move to London, where he works for a government department before going into private practice.
Manson becomes seduced by the thought of easy money from wealthy clients rather than the good works that he originally set out to do. He becomes involved with pampered private patients and fashionable surgeons, until a patient dies through a surgeon's incompetence. Manson accuses the surgeon of murder, and as revenge, he is reported to the Medical Council for having worked with a nature cure practitioner, even though the patient had been successfully treated.
Christine tragically dies in a road accident, but Manson manages to justify his actions satisfactorily during the hearing. He finally decides to join two friends in opening a new practice in a quiet country town.
For the story, Cronin drew on his own experiences as a doctor in the industrial valleys of South Wales.
