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Excerpt from The Citadel Andrew descended. The next minute, while he was gathering himself for the ordeal of his entrance, the front door was ung open and he was in the lighted hall being welcomed effusively by a short, plump, smiling woman of about forty with a shining face and bright bold twinkling eyes. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."
In a story of wide and fascinating detail A. J. Cronin tells of Dr. David Morey who tries to atone for his desertion of the woman he loved. Beguiled by the prospect of riches he goes on to marry Dottie, a spoiled but beautiful neurotic who brings him almost constant misery, until a chance remark makes him seek retribution in memories of the past and a return to his native Scotland. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin’s other classic novels, The Judas Tree is a great book by a much-loved author.
Paul Mathry, a student about to graduate and embark upon a teaching career, finds out that his father was convicted for murder, a secret that his mother had hidden from him since his childhood. Driven by an intense desire to see his father, Paul sets out to visit him in prison, only to find out that visitors are never allowed there. From there, he meets the primary witnesses in the case that convicted his father, not all of whom are supportive to Paul's cause. He encounters several dead ends but he persists, with the help of a store girl named Lena and a news reporter. His persistent campaign finally bears fruit. Rees Mathry, Paul's father, goes on appeal and is vindicated. The novel ends with Paul's father, a hardened, cynical man, seeing a fleeting hope for self-renewal and a purposeful life. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin’s other classic novels, Beyond This Place is a great book by a much-loved author.
Henry Page, owner of The Northern Light, the oldest and most respected newspaper in Tynecastle, is offered a vast sum to turn over control to a mass-circulation group based in London. He refuses – despite entreaties by his wife to accept – and so begins his fight with the Chronicle, an almost defunct newspaper in the same area which is given new life by London-thinking and London men. Against Henry Page, a journalist who believes in honest presentation of news without bringing in sensationalism, the Chronicle pulls every dirty trick in the trade. And Henry, brought eventually almost to his knees, stoically holds on to his principles and The Northern Light. It is only when he has won the battle that tragedy robs him of the most important thing in his life. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin’s other classic novels, The Northern Light is a great book by a much-loved author.
Originally published in 1945, The Green Years is one of A J Cronin’s best-loved novels. It tells the story of Robert Shannon, a young Irish Catholic boy, who, orphaned at the age of seven, is brought to live with his mother’s estranged family in Scotland. As he grows up in a dour Presbyterian town, only his great-grandfather, an incorrigible, swaggering, charming, larger-than-life character, seems able to rescue him from the narrow interests of the people who try to shape his life in their own image. Disappointed in love and in his burning ambition to study medicine, the eighteen-year-old Robert sees his future as a blank wall. But, once again, he is saved from despair by his fiery relative, much to the chagrin of the rest of the family. This compassionate story of a boy’s growth to manhood, set against the harsh reality of life at the turn of the century, shows A J Cronin at his masterly best, creating a vivid gallery of characters with his customary blend of imagination, insight and tenderness. In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin’s other classic novels, The Green Years is a great book by a much-loved author
Desmonde Fitzgerald is handsome, charming and blessed with a marvellous singing voice – he is the Minstrel Boy. He becomes a priest, winning the coveted Golden Chalice for his singing when in seminary school abroad. But the duality of nature threatens to destroy the brilliant future that lies before him. Beloved of his parishioners and canon, he is devastatingly attractive to women, in particular the wealthy patron of his church at Kilbarrack, Ireland. But it is not until her wayward and sensual niece, Claire, arrives that disaster strikes . . . In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, The Stars Look Down and Cronin’s other classic novels, The Minstrel Boy is a great book by a much-loved author
Originally published in Ladies' Home Journal magazine (January 1960), THE NATIVE DOCTOR is A. J. Cronin's romantic and thrilling tale of Dr. Robert Murray and Nurse Mary Benchley, who travel to a remote Caribbean island to care for a rich sugar planter while he recovers from a serious operation. But Murray and Benchley discover that a wicked conspiracy is brewing against the planter and that an imminent political coup is about to throw the island into turmoil. As they try to escape with their lives, the attraction that blossoms between them gradually intensifies to a "violent sensation of delight."
A.J. Cronin, author of some of the best-loved novels of the mid-twentieth century and the creator of Dr Finlay, has been unjustly overlooked by literary biographers. In this, the first fulllength life of this eminent and unjustly neglected writer, Alan Davies recounts the story of Cronin's Scottish childhood as the son of a Protestant mother and Catholic father, his subsequent medical career and his rise to literary prominence, emphasizing throughout the importance of holding at arm's length many of the apocryphal tales that have accumulated around the memory of the author of Hatter's Castle, The Citadel and The Stars Look Down, many of which are based on mistaken autobiographical readings of Cronin's fiction itself. Incorporating an account of Cronin's tempestuous relationship with his publisher, Victor Gollancz, and new revelations about the author's private life, Davies's book paints a clearer portrait of both Cronin the writer and Cronin the man.