Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Story of Doctor Dolittle
    The Story of Doctor Dolittle
    The Story of Doctor Dolittle
    Ebook108 pages1 hour

    The Story of Doctor Dolittle

    By Hugh Lofting

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to audiobook
    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The classic children’s tale of a man who could walk with the animals, talk with the animals, grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals . . .
     
    John Dolittle was not your average doctor. He was known as a quiet, capable physician who lived a simple life in a simple house with his sister. His true love was for animals. He even kept a menagerie of wildlife in his very home, which ended up scaring away his two-legged human clientele.
     
    But after his parrot, Polynesia, teaches him the secret to speaking with animals, Dolittle finds a new calling as a veterinarian. He uses his gift to understand, help, and heal the furred and feathered of the world. As his fame spreads, he’s soon called upon to travel far from his small English village to the jungles of Africa, where an epidemic is threatening the entire monkey kingdom. It seems only Doctor Dolittle can save the day.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJul 4, 2017
    ISBN9781504046299
    Author

    Hugh Lofting

    Hugh Lofting was born in Maidenhead in 1886. He studied engineering in London and America and his work as a civil engineer took him all over the world. He interrupted his career to enlist in the army and fight in the First World War. Wanting to shield his children from the horrors of combat, including the fate of horses on the battlefield, he wrote to them instead about a kindly doctor who could talk to animals. After the war he settled with his family in Connecticut and it was from there that he published his Doctor Dolittle books. The Story of Doctor Dolittle was published in 1920, followed by twelve more in the series. The highly acclaimed author died in 1947.

    Read more from Hugh Lofting

    Related to The Story of Doctor Dolittle

    Related ebooks

    Children's Historical For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Per Gynt

      Oct 6, 2021

      Per Gynt
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Griffin

      Nov 4, 2020

      The Griffin
      3 min read

    • Article

      Delayed Reactions

      Feb 1, 2023

      Delayed Reactions
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Long Winter

      Dec 2, 2020

      The Long Winter
      3 min read

    • Article

      The Firefox

      Jan 5, 2023

      The Firefox
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dream Home for Earthworms

      Apr 1, 2022

      “What’s in your pocket, Oscar?” asked Rosie. “Did you catch another toad?” Mom came out of the garage, a pot of zinnias in each hand. “Oh, Oscar. Please be careful! I don’t want any of your little friends ending up in the washing machine!” Oscar rea

      3 min read

    • Article

      Storm Chaser

      May 1, 2022

      Storm Chaser
      7 min read

    • Article

      The 19 th Arrgh September

      Sep 1, 2022

      The 19 th Arrgh September
      2 min read

    • Article

      Tata’s Coyotes

      Jan 1, 2022

      Tata’s Coyotes
      3 min read

    • Article

      The King’s Journey

      Jul 1, 2023

      The King’s Journey
      4 min read

    • Article

      Let's Laugh!

      Nov 24, 2020

      Let's Laugh!
      1 min read

    • Article

      Word Warrior Competition 2021

      Nov 4, 2021

      He is back … and you are invited to spend some time with Detective Nkomba! Enter the Word Warrior 2021 Competition NOW! Show us the end result of your in-depth interview in a written piece of no longer than three pages. 1. Set the scene: are you a ta

      2 min read

    • Article

      The PRIDE

      May 1, 2023

      The PRIDE
      5 min read

    • Article

      Flying with Arctic Terns

      Mar 1, 2021

      Flying with Arctic Terns
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Water Of Life

      Mar 2, 2022

      The Water Of Life
      4 min read

    • Article

      The GIRL WHO LISTENED with HER FEET

      Apr 1, 2020

      The GIRL WHO LISTENED with HER FEET
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ready, Rosie?

      Jul 1, 2020

      “HEY! DON’T TELL me you’re scared!” Sasha smirked at Rosie, then leaned into her horse’s cheek and circled his head with her arms, as if he were nothing but a big stuffed animal. “I’m not.” The lie didn’t sound as definite as Rosie wished it did. She

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Feb 8, 2023

      The Old Un's Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      The Quiet Boy

      Jan 28, 2019

      The Quiet Boy
      29 min read

    • Article

      Adults Beware: On the Wisdom of the Goosebumps Books

      May 15, 2018

      R.L. Stine’s horror adventures for kids, Goosebumps, are apparently the second best selling book series in history, right behind the exploits of the world’s most famous wizard. As a lifelong Goosebumps fan, I find this endlessly puzzling. It is

      6 min read

    • Article

      B.J. Hollars Explores the Midwest’s Strangest Corners

      Aug 27, 2019

      Mysteries aren’t something to be solved, but something to be embraced. We don’t need to conquer; we just need to be curious. For me, that’s where the revelation lives—in the not-knowing. The post B.J. Hollars Explores the Midwest’s Strangest Corners

      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Story of Doctor Dolittle

    3.5/5

    465 ratings14 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      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!
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      Doctor Dolittle is an impoverished doctor who is very friendly with animals. After he gives up his human practice and becomes an animal doctor, he receives a cry for help from the monkeys of Africa who are experiencing an epidemic sickness. I have fond memories of reading all the Doctor Dolittle books as a child. This is my first time to re-read one and I was not disappointed. Lofting was a master storyteller and this book enchants from start to finish. Each chapter is packed with action, adventure and humour. There are many endearing animal characters, each with their own distinct personality. I loved Gub-Gub the pig who was frequently reduced to tears, while my 7yo loved Polynesia the wise and rather bossy parrot. This was a fun and quick book to read aloud and the 7yo enjoyed it immensely. The second book in the series has already been placed on our up-and-coming read-alouds pile.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 1/5
      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.)
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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..
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.

    Book preview

    The Story of Doctor Dolittle - Hugh Lofting

    Lofting_StoryOfDrDolittle.jpg

    The Story of Doctor Dolittle

    Hugh Lofting

    logo2

    TO

    ALL CHILDREN

    CHILDREN IN YEARS AND CHILDREN IN HEART

    I DEDICATE THIS STORY

    INTRODUCTION TO THE TENTH PRINTING

    There are some of us now reaching middle age who discover themselves to be lamenting the past in one respect if in none other, that there are no books written now for children comparable with those of thirty years ago. I say written for children because the new psychological business of writing about them as though they were small pills or hatched in some especially scientific method is extremely popular to-day. Writing for children rather than about them is very difficult as everybody who has tried it knows. It can only be done, I am convinced, by somebody having a great deal of the child in his own outlook and sensibilities. Such was the author of The Little Duke and The Dove in the Eagle’s Nest, such the author of A Flatiron for a Farthing, and The Story of a Short Life. Such, above all, the author of Alice in Wonderland. Grownups imagine that they can do the trick by adopting baby language and talking down to their very critical audience. There never was a greater mistake. The imagination of the author must be a child’s imagination and yet maturely consistent, so that the White Queen in Alice, for instance, is seen just as a child would see her, but she continues always herself through all her distressing adventures. The supreme touch of the white rabbit pulling on his white gloves as he hastens is again absolutely the child’s vision, but the white rabbit as guide and introducer of Alice’s adventures belongs to mature grown insight.

    Geniuses are rare and, without being at all an undue praiser of times past, one can say without hesitation that until the appearance of Hugh Lofting, the successor of Miss Yonge, Mrs. Ewing, Mrs. Gatty and Lewis Carroll had not appeared. I remember the delight with which some six months ago I picked up the first Dolittle book in the Hampshire bookshop at Smith College in Northampton. One of Mr. Lofting’s pictures was quite enough for me. The picture that I lighted upon when I first opened the book was the one of the monkeys making a chain with their arms across the gulf. Then I looked further and discovered Bumpo reading fairy stories to himself. And then looked again and there was a picture of John Dolittle’s house.

    But pictures are not enough although most authors draw so badly that if one of them happens to have the genius for line that Mr. Lofting shows there must be, one feels, something in his writing as well. There is. You cannot read the first paragraph of the book, which begins in the right way Once upon a time without knowing that Mr. Lofting believes in his story quite as much as he expects you to. That is the first essential for a story teller. Then you discover as you read on that he has the right eye for the right detail. What child-inquiring mind could resist this intriguing sentence to be found on the second page of the book:

    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.

    And then when you read a little further you will discover that the Doctor is not merely a peg on whom to hang exciting and various adventures but that he is himself a man of original and lively character. He is a very kindly, generous man, and anyone who has ever written stories will know that it is much more difficult to make kindly, generous characters interesting than unkindly and mean ones. But Dolittle is interesting. It is not only that he is quaint but that he is wise and knows what he is about. The reader, however young, who meets him gets very soon a sense that if he were in trouble, not necessarily medical, he would go to Dolittle and ask his advice about it. Dolittle seems to extend his hand from the page and grasp that of his reader, and I can see him going down the centuries a kind of Pied Piper with thousands of children at his heels. But not only is he a darling and alive and credible but his creator has also managed to invest everybody else in the book with the same kind of life.

    Now this business of giving life to animals, making them talk and behave like human beings, is an extremely difficult one. Lewis Carroll absolutely conquered the difficulties, but I am not sure that anyone after him until Hugh Lofting has really managed the trick; even in such a masterpiece as The Wind in the Willows we are not quite convinced. John Dolittle’s friends are convincing because their creator never forces them to desert their own characteristics. Polynesia, for instance, is natural from first to last. She really does care about the Doctor but she cares as a bird would care, having always some place to which she is going when her business with her friends is over. And when Mr. Lofting invents fantastic animals he gives them a kind of credible possibility which is extraordinarily convincing. It will be impossible for anyone who has read this book not to believe in the existence of the pushmi-pullyu, who would be credible enough even were there no drawing of it, but the picture on page 153 settles the matter of his truth once and for all.

    In fact this book is a work of genius and, as always with works of genius, it is difficult to analyze the elements that have gone to make it. There is poetry here and fantasy and humor, a little pathos but, above all, a number of creations in whose existence everybody must believe whether they be children of four or old men of ninety or prosperous bankers of forty-five. I don’t know how Mr. Lofting has done it; I don’t suppose that he knows himself. There it is—the first real children’s classic since Alice.

    HUGH WALPOLE.

    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,

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1