The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts

By Hugh Lofting

Doctor John Dolittle loves animals. He loves them so much that his home and office overflow with animals of every description. When Polynesia the parrot teaches him the language of the animals, Doctor Dolittle becomes a world-famous doctor, traveling even as far away as Africa to help his friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dreamscape Media
• Release date: Aug 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9781974923786

Hugh Lofting

Hugh Lofting (1886–1947) was a British children’s author, best known for his Doctor Dolittle series. Lofting began his career as a civil engineer before enlisting in the British Army to serve in the First World War. While at war, he began writing letters to his children, which soon became the stories of Doctor Dolittle. After being seriously wounded in the war and returning home, Lofting published his first book, The Story of Doctor Dolittle in 1920. Its sequel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle won the Newbery Medal. The series spawned an additional eight sequels and has been adapted into numerous film and stage adaptations. In addition to children’s books, Lofting also wrote Victory for the Slain, a long poem that described the futility of the First World War.

Book preview

THE STORY OF

DOCTOR DOLITTLE

THE FIRST CHAPTER

PUDDLEBY

ONCE upon a time, many years ago—when our grandfathers were little children—there was a doctor; and his name was Dolittle—John Dolittle, M.D. M.D. means that he was a proper doctor and knew a whole lot.

He lived in a little town called, Puddleby-on-the-Marsh. All the folks, young and old, knew him well by sight. And whenever he walked down the street in his high hat everyone would say, There goes the Doctor!—He’s a clever man. And the dogs and the children would all run up and follow behind him; and even the crows that lived in the church-tower would caw and nod their heads.

The house he lived in, on the edge of the town, was quite small; but his garden was very large and had a wide lawn and stone seats and weeping-willows hanging over. His sister, Sarah Dolittle, was housekeeper for him; but the Doctor looked after the garden himself.

He was very fond of animals and kept many kinds of pets. Besides the gold-fish in the pond at the bottom of his garden, he had rabbits in the pantry, white mice in his piano, a squirrel in the linen closet and a hedgehog in the cellar. He had a cow with a calf too, and an old lame horse—twenty-five years of age—and chickens, and pigeons, and two lambs, and many other animals. But his favorite pets were Dab-Dab the duck, Jip the dog, Gub-Gub the baby pig, Polynesia the parrot, and the owl Too-Too.

His sister used to grumble about all these animals and said they made the house untidy. And one day when an old lady with rheumatism came to see the Doctor, she sat on the hedgehog who was sleeping on the sofa and never came to see him any more, but drove every Saturday all the way to Oxenthorpe, another town ten miles off, to see a different doctor.

woman leaving doctor's house

And she never came to see him any more

Then his sister, Sarah Dolittle, came to him and said,

John, how can you expect sick people to come and see you when you keep all these animals in the house? It’s a fine doctor would have his parlor full of hedgehogs and mice! That’s the fourth personage these animals have driven away. Squire Jenkins and the Parson say they wouldn’t come near your house again—no matter how sick they are. We are getting poorer every day. If you go on like this, none of the best people will have you for a doctor.

But I like the animals better than the ‘best people’, said the Doctor.

You are ridiculous, said his sister, and walked out of the room.

So, as time went on, the Doctor got more and more animals; and the people who came to see him got less and less. Till at last he had no one left—except the Cat’s-meat-Man, who didn’t mind any kind of animals. But the Cat’s-meat-Man wasn’t very rich and he only got sick once a year—at Christmas-time, when he used to give the Doctor sixpence for a bottle of medicine.

Sixpence a year wasn’t enough to live on—even in those days, long ago; and if the Doctor hadn’t had some money saved up in his money-box, no one knows what would have happened.

And he kept on getting still more pets; and of course it cost a lot to feed them. And the money he had saved up grew littler and littler.

Then he sold his piano, and let the mice live in a bureau-drawer. But the money he got for that too began to go, so he sold the brown suit he wore on Sundays and went on becoming poorer and poorer.

And now, when he walked down the street in his high hat, people would say to one another, There goes John Dolittle, M.D.! There was a time when he was the best known doctor in the West Country—Look at him now—He hasn’t any money and his stockings are full of holes!

But the dogs and the cats and the children still ran up and followed him through the town—the same as they had done when he was rich.

THE SECOND CHAPTER

ANIMAL LANGUAGE

IT happened one day that the Doctor was sitting in his kitchen talking with the Cat’s-meat-Man who had come to see him with a stomach-ache.

Why don’t you give up being a people’s doctor, and be an animal-doctor? asked the Cat’s-meat-Man.

The parrot, Polynesia, was sitting in the window looking out at the rain and singing a sailor-song to herself. She stopped singing and started to listen.

You see, Doctor, the Cat’s-meat-Man went on, "you know all about animals—much more than what these here vets do. That book you wrote—about cats, why, it’s wonderful! I can’t read or write myself—or maybe I’d write some books. But my wife, Theodosia, she’s a scholar, she is. And she read your book to me. Well, it’s wonderful—that’s all can be said—wonderful. You might have been a cat yourself. You know the way they think. And listen: you can make a lot of money doctoring animals. Do you know that? You see, I’d send all the old women who had sick cats or dogs to you. And if they didn’t get sick fast enough, I could put something in the meat I sell ’em to make ’em sick, see?"

Oh, no, said the Doctor quickly. You mustn’t do that. That wouldn’t be right.

Oh, I didn’t mean real sick, answered the Cat’s-meat-Man. Just a little something to make them droopy-like was what I had reference to. But as you say, maybe it ain’t quite fair on the animals. But they’ll get sick anyway, because the old women always give ’em too much to eat. And look, all the farmers round about who had lame horses and weak lambs—they’d come. Be an animal-doctor.

When the Cat’s-meat-Man had gone the parrot flew off the window on to the Doctor’s table and said,

"That man’s got sense. That’s what you ought to do. Be an animal-doctor. Give the silly people up—if they haven’t brains enough to see you’re the best doctor in the world. Take care of animals instead—they’ll soon find it out. Be an animal-doctor."

Oh, there are plenty of animal-doctors, said John Dolittle, putting the flower-pots outside on the window-sill to get the rain.

"Yes, there are plenty, said Polynesia. But none of them are any good at all. Now listen, Doctor, and I’ll tell you something. Did you know that animals can talk?"

I knew that parrots can talk, said the Doctor.

Oh, we parrots can talk in two languages—people’s language and bird-language, said Polynesia proudly. "If I say, ‘Polly wants a cracker,’ you understand me. But hear this: Ka-ka oi-ee, fee-fee?"

Good Gracious! cried the Doctor. What does that mean?

That means, ‘Is the porridge hot yet?’—in bird-language.

My! You don’t say so! said the Doctor. You never talked that way to me before.

What would have been the good? said Polynesia, dusting some cracker-crumbs off her left wing. You wouldn’t have understood me if I had.

Tell me some more, said the Doctor, all excited; and he rushed over to the dresser-drawer and came back with the butcher’s book and a pencil. Now don’t go too fast—and I’ll write it down. This is interesting—very interesting—something quite new. Give me the Birds’ A.B.C. first—slowly now.

So that was the way the Doctor came to know that animals had a language of their own and could talk to one another. And all that afternoon, while it was raining, Polynesia sat on the kitchen table giving him bird

Reviews for The Story of Doctor Dolittle

[Brent · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Warning: this book is horribly racist in places. Really quite upsetting.

[themulhern · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I am certain I read this as a child, but I can barely remember it. The book is actually quite enjoyable, but with many dated words. The nearest analogue I can think of at this time are the C.S. Lewis Narnia books. Tremendous sea voyages require almost no preparation in both. It is madly Victorian, with all the conventions; Dr. Dolitle's sister becomes so fed up with his bad management of his physician's practice that she gets married to escape him. In parts, it is rather funny.

[leslie398 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyable children's tale of the man who could talk to animals. I wasn't overwhelmed by David Case's narration.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would like to have known a real Doctor Dolittle. I can just imagine his house with its goldfish, dogs, rabbits, cats, mice, squirrels, hedgehog, cows, chickens, pidgins, horse, lambs, duck, pig, parrot, and owl...to name a few. You would think all of these animals would get in the way of Doctor Dolittle taking care of human patients when in reality, he preferred the animals to the people. When he learned to communicate with his furry and feathered friends it was game over. He gave up trying to cure the two-legged folks and concentrated on his true friends.
It is pretty high praise to be compared to Lewis Carroll. Hugh Walpole does just that to Hugh Lofting in his introduction to The Story of Doctor Dolittle.
Lofting wrote the Dolittle stories for his children while he was stationed overseas in the form of illustrated letters. He dedicated Dolittle to "all Children. Children in Years and Children in Heart." Very sweet.

[aprille_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was a success with my kids. It is the story of how Dr. Dolittle came to learn the language of the animals and made his first trip to Africa to cure the sick monkeys. He also collected the pushme pullyou. This is a pretty sraightforward prose style. It was originally written in the form of letters home to Lofting's children when he was an engineer stationed in Africa during World War I. The sentences are short, declarative sentences, without a lot of description or pacing. A lot of dialogue and a fast paced plot. The words are easy and the print in this voluem is larger and easier for a child to read to herself than the second volume, the Voyages of Dr. Dolittle (which also has a more sophisticated style) (Perhaps Lofting's children were simply older when he wrote the second volume.

I particularly enjoyed the character of the doctor, who is somewhat taciturn. The voices of the animals are heard often at greater length than his. I like the way he listenes carefully to what they say and almost always takes their advice. He really treats them like colleagues on an expedition. There is no significant human domination in the relationship -- other than that which results because the doctor can cure animals. Indeed, some of the animals seem so much more sensible than the doctor about things like money and housekeeping and business that we feel the doctor would be lost without their help. But he is so sincere and kind we understand exactly why they love him.

[robinrowlesauthor · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first read The Story of Doctor Dolittle when I was a young child. It is definitely an all-time-favourite of mine. The storytelling is superb, and there are lots of great characters. I really liked Polynesia, the parrot, and the extraordinary 'PUSHMI-PULLYU' - What fantastic imagination! - I'm still hoping to meet one!

I'm going to read this story again soon! A complete review to follow.

Recommended reading for young children and fun-loving adults too!

[March Delgado · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was MY BOOK, the first one I got hooked on at the age of 6. Wonderful, it taught me that you can fly without having wings. All my wishes came true in that veterinarian who could communicate with animals. (Translated from Spanish)

[sueincyprus · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an abridged version of the classic story of the doctor who can talk to animals, and who embarks on a rescue mission to Africa. The illustrations are reminiscent of the book I recall, although not the same. The story, too, follows the same path but is less long-winded and somewhat more politically correct than the original.

There are still some generalisations and more than a hint of the racism that rather dogged the books as originally written almost a century ago. Nonetheless it's an excellent story, one that has appealed to children (and adults!) for a long time.

I read it aloud to my four-year-old grandson, who has heard it before and no doubt will hear it again. I thought it excellent as an adaptation, a great introduction to a series which I hope my grandson will read for himself when he's older.

[jane.oldaker · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story of Dr. Dolittle who is abandoned by his human patients because of all his pets. He is then abandoned by his animal patients because he refuses to give up his pet crocodile. His money is all gone, his sister leaves him to get married, and he is on the point of being unable to feed his animals. He must get to Africa because the monkeys there are suffering from a terrible disease. The story is about his adventures in Africa and his eventual return to Puddleby-on-the-Marsh.

I reread this as an adult and enjoyed it every bit as much as I did when I was a child. The magical notion of talking animals never gets tired for me. Some of the aspects of the story are noticeably dated, but it comes by it honestly enough.

[5eva5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first book in a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and travels the world to help them out. I recently re-watched the 1967 movie since it was a childhood favorite of mine and it's still quite good (although why they cast Rex Harrison - who can't sing to save his life - in a musical is beyond me), but I realized I had never actually read any of the books so I picked this one up to give it a try. It's quite entertaining and especially the animals have some nice lines, but beware than it's quite racist by today's standards, e.g. featuring an African prince who asks Dolittle to turn him white since Sleeping Beauty won't marry him because he's black. It's not a series I mean to continue, but it was fun to have tried one installment. David Case is not a great reader, so I'd suggest not going for his audio-version.

[capiam1234 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Yes there is some racial language found in this delightful story of a doctor who can talk with animals. But keeping in mind this was written in 1920 it is the perfect book to educate our children on how far or how little we've come since then.

[bostonian71 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Racist and not that well-written, and there's very little depth to the characters. And after dealing with in-laws who have a blase attitude toward money (i.e. more will just magically appear when you need it), I found the Doctor's passiveness and impracticality very frustrating. This merits a star only because there are a few charming moments, such as the horse who gets green sunglasses to wear in the fields. (Read out loud at bedtime, under duress.)

[norabelle414 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first book in the Doctor Dolittle series. Doctor Dolittle is a terrible physician. He's good at his job, but no patients will ever come visit him because he has too many animals. So, he decides to become a veterinarian. Unlike the Eddie Murphy version, the originial Doctor Dolittle gains the ability to speak to and understand animals through kindness (so the animals will be willing to talk to him) and a lot of hard work. One day, a monkey comes to visit and informs the doctor that all of the monkeys in Africa are getting sick. So, the doctor and a few of his favorite animal companions sail to Africa to help them.

The whole Doctor Dolittle series is exactly what you'd expect it to be: great if you like classic kids' books; probably pretty boring if you don't.

[fyrefly98 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Summary: Dr. Dolittle is a British country doctor with a soft spot for animals - so much so that his human clientele has dropped off steeply due to the abundance of animals around his house. His parrot, Polynesia, wisely suggests that he become an animal doctor rather than a people doctor, and sets about teaching him the secret language that animals use to talk to each other. With this knowledge, Dr. Dolittle becomes the best animal doctor there ever was, and his fame spreads among animals far and wide. Eventually, he is called to Africa where there is a great sickness among the monkeys, but getting there safely - and back - is no mean feat for a poor country doctor.

Review: I loved the Dr. Dolittle Treasury when I was younger, and I was pleased to find that the original version of the first book has lost none of its charm, even now that I'm a grownup. One the one hand, it is a product of its time, and there's some casual racism surrounding Dr. Dolittle's trip to Africa that reads uncomfortably today. But, on the other hand, I think the desire to talk to the animals is a pretty universal one amongst children (or maybe just amongst children destined to grow up to be biologists?), and the animals are absolutely the star of the show. Lofting renders their personalities clearly and uniquely, so that they're all each individuals as well as representatives of their species - most dog owners will recognize their own pet in Jip, for example. There are plenty of adventures to keep this short book moving along quickly, some good laughs, and the fact that it was written for children keeps the language from becoming dense or overblown. It's not a particularly deep book, but it is charming and fun, and deserves its status as a children's classic. 4 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Anyone who has kids who like animals, or anyone who *was* a kid who liked animals should definitely pick this one up for a nice little break.

[susanbevans · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting is the imaginative and humorous first novel in the Voyages of Doctor Dolittle series. Thanks to his intelligent parrot Polynesia, Doctor Dolittle learns how to talk to animals. Because he has these unique skills, he becomes an animal doctor, and along the way helps countless animals.

Although a very simple story, written in a simple way - the way children would understand - The Story of Doctor Dolittle was excellent. Full of adventure and humor, you will not be able to put this book down. The characters, especially the animals, come to vivid life, and practically leap of the page to trot, swing, or pad through your living room! The Story of Doctor Dolittle is good for the young, and the young-at-heart..

[bell7_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this story, Dr. Dolittle fails as a human doctor (one of his patients flipped out when she sat on a hedgehog he was keeping, and it was all downhill from there), he becomes really poor from lack of patients, and his sister (the housekeeper) gets sick of the poverty and constant animals underfoot and leaves. His one remaining patient tells him he should become an animal doctor. His parrot thinks this is a good idea, and teaches him how to talk to animals (she's the perfect candidate, of course, because she can use human speech too). So then he gains renown as an animal doctor, and all the animals love him (and all the horses around are starting to wear spectacles), and then he has to go to Africa to save the sick monkeys...

And then it just meanders on from there. There were moments that were supposed to be exciting, but I found the premise so ludicrous that I was never in any suspense over them. I actually didn't like Dr. Dolittle much -- he really does "do little" (and just wait 'til you see how he gains back all that money he lost...), and I'm sorry but the only explanation for how he can talk to animals is that his parrot taught him? If it weren't for the fact that I remember liking The Voyages of Dr. Dolittle, I would doubt that I could buy this story even as a kid. I didn't hate the book, but two CDs never seemed like a longer story.

[clurb · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A classic children's adventure story; Dr Doolittle and his friends travel to Africa to help the monkeys. Beware though, this writing is very much of its age and the vocabulary used (and some of the opinions expressed) should be taken with a generous pinch of salt.

[boundtogetherforgood · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I didn't fall in love with this book. I like to introduce our kids to lasting literature, classics, if you will. I want them to be well-rounded. To complete having read this book we will also watch the original movie with Rex Harrison and then also the newer version with Eddie Murphy.