The Stars Look Down

The Stars Look Down was A. J. Cronin’s fourth novel, published in 1935, and this tale of a North-Country mining family was a great favourite with his readers.

Robert Fenwick is a miner, and so are his three sons. His wife is proud that all her four men go down the mines. But David, the youngest, is determined that somehow he will educate himself and work to ameliorate the lives of his comrades who ruin their health to dig the nation’s coal. It is, perhaps, a typical tale of the era in which it was written – there were many novels about coal mining, but Cronin, a doctor-turned-author, had a gift for storytelling, and in his time wrote several very popular and successful novels.

In the magnificent narrative tradition of The Citadel, Hatter’s Castle and Cronin’s other novels, The Stars Look Down is deservedly remembered as a classic of its age.

Author Biography

Born in Cardross, Scotland, A. J. Cronin studied at the University of Glasgow. In 1916, he served as a surgeon sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, and at the war’s end he completed his medical studies and practised in South Wales. He was later appointed to the Ministry of Mines, studying the medical problems of the mining industry. He later moved to London and built up a successful practice in the West End. In 1931, he published his first book, Hatter’s Castle, which was compared with the works of Dickens, Hardy and Balzac, winning him critical acclaim. Other books by A. J. Cronin include: Dr Finlay’s Casebook, Grand Canary, The Citadel, Three Loves, The Green Years, Beyond This Place and The Keys of the Kingdom.