The citadel door A.J. Cronin

October 1924. Dr. Manson goes to Drineffy, South Wales, to work in Dr Page’s practice. When he gets there a strange man called Denny, the help of Dr. Nicholis, tells him that the medical world in Drineffy is no good. Andrew can’t sleep, when he finds out that the medicines are just colored water. More and more people get sick, because of the dirty water they drink. Denny and Andrew decide to blow up the sewer, so there will be built a new one. Their plan works. Then Andrew falls in love with Christine Barlow, a schoolteacher. He takes her out to Freddie Hamson, an old friend. The next day he saves a baby’s life and gets 5 pounds from the grateful parents. Then he gets an offer to be the doctor of the miners, but he refuses, because he thinks it isn’t fair to Dr. Page, who now is the doctor of the miners. Mrs. Page gets mad and commands Andrew to give her the 5 pounds. He refuses. He decides to leave and gets a job in Aberalaw, but to really get the job, he must be married. He marries Christine and they move to Aberalaw. At his new practice the miners keep asking him for sick notes, so he decides to only give them when they are necessary. The miners hate that, and he starts to lose patients. But then the secretary of the Society becomes his patient. The word spreads quickly and he gets a little popularity back. But Andrew is mad at himself for being poor and takes it out on Christine. Then Denny comes to visit them with the news that he’s going abroad. Andrew started to realize that the doctors there don’t have relationships with each other- like he and Denny- and decides there must be something done. There must be a new system. But he is afraid to make mistakes. And he makes them. The doctors don’t agree with him. He wants to reach something and go to work in a university. But before he can he has to do a test, but his health is bad. He gets through the test and gets a degree. Then an accident at the mine happens. He saves a man and gets popular. On Christmas evening Christine tells she’s pregnant. She goes to her aunt for a few weeks and Andrew does a great discovery. When she gets back, she gets an accident and the baby dies. Andrew starts to do tests with animals-without harming them- to do research on the harmfulness of the mine-air, but men of the Society take the animals and take him to court. They demand that he stops his work as a doctor. Especially Chenkin, who is angry because he didn’t get a sick note, Andrews saves himself by showing a letter from The Scotland University that praises him for his work. Meanwhile, his work is known in all of America and England and he gets the offer to become a medical officer. He takes the offer and moves to London. He gets a beautiful office and a secretary. He gets a friend, Hope, who tells him everything that has been going on in the medical world of London. Andrew wants to continue his research, but he gets other work and doesn’t like it. He makes a report, and has had enough. He moves and opens his first own practice. They get so poor that sometimes they even have no food. He goes to dinner at Freddie Hamson’s and hears other doctor about swindling people. He cures a woman who gets him a lot of patients, including Miss Everett, who gives him lots of money. But he cons her without feeling guilty. He also makes a lot of money out of Mrs. le Roy, a spoiled rich woman. Freddie Hamson gives him an advice: Tell people they’re sick and make money and out of them. Andrew does that and gets richer and richer. Christine doesn’t like it and they quarrel. Andrew gets a post at the Victoria Hospital. Denny and Hope come and visit Andrew and think that he should change back. Christine is sad, because Andrew only cares about the money. He gets a practice in West-London for his rich patients and makes lots of money. Then he meets Dr. Stillman, who tells him that he’s going to open a hospital. Christine leaves after another quarrel with Andrew. He cheats on her with Mrs. Lawrence, a friend of Mrs. le Roy. Then Christine comes back and everything is fine. Then Andrew lets Dr. Ivory operate a man, but Dr. Ivory doesn’t know what he’s doing and the man dies. Andrew gets sick from anger, and doesn’t eat or sleep. He doesn’t care about his patient or money. That he decides to build a new system, together with Hope and Denny.
They think it’s a good plan. He sells his practice and dumps Mrs. Lawrence. Everything is good between him and Christine. But then she goes to get some cheese and gets killed by a bus. Andrew drinks and cries and decides to go to Wales with Denny. Then he gets a letter. He has to go to court because he brought a girl, Mary Bowland, to Dr. Stillman’s hospital, while he is an ‘illegal doctor’. He was actually a good doctor but people refuse to admit it. Everything seems hopeless but he wins the case. And he gets to say what he thinks is wrong about the system. He works his plan out with Denny and then went to Christine’s grave to say goodbye. Then he took the train.