A. J. Cronin "The Citadel"
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A. J. Cronin
Andrew Manson, a newly qualified doctor, is working in the small town of Drineffy, in South Wales. It is his first job, and he is young and keen. He has dreams of helping people, making important discoveries and improving the health system, but he soon discovers that professional life is not so simple. His first shock comes when he meets Dr Page, for whom he will be working, and finds that he can expect little help from him. As Andrew starts to understand the problems of the existing medical system, he becomes increasingly certain that it must be changed. He makes enemies in the process, but gains some friends, too. These include Philip Denny, another young doctor, whose behaviour Andrew at first finds shocking and unacceptable, and an attractive young schoolteacher, Christine Barlow.
As Andrew struggles against the system, he makes serious mistakes, takes dangerous risks, and is often at war with himself. There are many desperate times when he loses all hope and his efforts seem certain to fail. But the young doctor, in his brave attempt to do what he believes is right, is sure to win the reader’s admiration.
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Text Analysis: Unique words: about 2,300. Total words: about 36,940
Hard words: account, aneurism, anxiety, awkward, bacteria, battlements, carriage, citadel, creep, dismiss, draw breath, experiment, hay fever, hormone, inquiry, microscope, mine, misery, practice, quality, relief, research, scorn, sewer, surgery, suspicion, tonsils, tremble, tuberculosis, typhoid
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