Shadow of Doctor Syn is the seventh and last in the series of Doctor Syn novels by Russell Thorndike. This story is set during the events of the French Revolution and part of the action has Syn rescuing people from the Reign of Terror in the style of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The other main plot element is a love story. Syn has fallen in love with young Cicily Cobtree and hopes his actions against Robespierre will earn him a pardon from the King. When Cicily dies, Syn gives up his ideas of pardon and nearly loses his sanity. This sets the stage for the fiendish character he becomes in Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh.
Shadow of Doctor Syn was published in 1944. It follows the events of Amazing Quest of Doctor Syn. Though it is the last book written in the series it acts as a prequel for the first novel.
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“Shakespeare carries us to such a lofty strain of intelligent activity, as to suggest a wealth which beggars his own; and we then feel that the splendid works which he has created, and which in other hours we extol as a sort of self-existent poetry, take no stronger hold of real nature than the shadow of a passing traveller on the rock. The inspiration which uttered itself in Hamlet and Lear could utter things as good from day to day, for ever.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Sarah N. Cleghorn (1876–1959)
“A good doctor does not treat himself.”
—Chinese proverb.