The Citadel Within The Citadel (1937), as in many of Cronin's other novels, there is a constant concern for the poor, especially with the poor whose situation is worsened by an aristocracy who, morally blinded by wealth, use the poor for increase. And Cronin concerns himself with the corrupting power of money not only on his aristocratic characters, but on his protagonist. At one point in The Citadel he shows the dilemma wealth placed on the protagonist, Dr. Manson: "a struggle between all that he believed and all he wished to have." Manson gives in to his desire for wealth, keeping a horde of hypochondriac and aristocratic patients.

Inventing sicknesses for them, he charges incredible fees for the injections — useless — which are supposed to cure them. This is the same Manson who, early in his career, was pitted against such practices of medicine. To Cronin...