The Story of Doctor Dolittle
by Hugh Lofting
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Book Summary Information
Author: Hugh LoftingEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1969-01-15
ISBN: 0440483077
Number of pages: 176
Publisher: Yearling Books
Book Reviews of The Story of Doctor Dolittle
Book Review: Brisk, Brief, and to the Point
Summary: 5 Stars
And what does Hugh Lofting's _The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle_ (1920) have to do with reviews that are usually science fictional? A lot. There is plenty of children's literature that has elements of the fantastic. And if you are looking for a precedent, Baird Searles reviewed the first two Dolittle books in _Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine_ back in 1989, when Dell was reissuing the series.
_The Story of Doctor Dolittle_ is the first novel in the series, and, I would argue, the best. Like the other books, it is imaginative, humorous, and original. And like the other books, it has the charming illustrations by the author. But unlike the others, it is brief. The writing is brisk and tight. You frequently sense that Lofting is getting straight down to business:
So it was agreed that the monkey, Chee-Chee, was to do the cooking and mending; the dog was to sweep the floors; the duck was to dust and make the beds; the owl, Too-Too, was to keep accounts; and the pig was to do gardening. They made Polynesia, the parrot, housekeeper and laundress because she was the oldest. (25)
Things are done in the way that children would do them, without a lot of planning. The Doctor receives word from a sparrow that some monkeys on an island near Africa need his help. They need to buy tickets. But when the Doctor checks his money box, he finds that it is empty. So he borrows a ship from a sailor. But they need supplies-- hardtack, canned food, rope, and a bell. So the sailor buys it for them on credit. In short order, they begin the voyage:
The cat's-meat man was there to see them off; and he brought a large suet pudding as a present for the Doctor because, he said he had been told, you couldn't get suet puddings in foreign parts.
As soon as they were on the ship, Gub-Gub, the pig, asked where the beds were, for it was four o'clock in the afternoon and he wanted his nap. (31)
There follow adventures with an African king and queen, a bridge of monkeys, the Pushmi-Pullyu, six Barbary pirates, and some ocean gossips. This is the ideal book with which to introduce children to the good Doctor and his animal friends.
There is an old introduction by Hugh Walpole written for the twentieth printing of the novel. In her excellent critical study of children's literature, _The Green and Burning Tree_ (1969), Eleanor Cameron argues that this introduction contains a string of nonsensical assertions: that Lofting was a literary genius; that the animals in Kenneth Graham's _The Wind in the Willows_ are not completely believable, and that _Dr. Dolittle_ is the first children's classic since _Alice_. (What about the works of E. Nesbit, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, Beatrix Potter, or George MacDonald?) But if Walpole is wrong on his details, he is right about his main argument: _The Story of Doctor Dolittle_ is an honest-to-goodness classic of children's literature.
Summary of The Story of Doctor Dolittle
In this first book in the series, Doctor Dolittle discovers that he can talk to the animals--Jip the dog, Dab Dab the duck, Polynesia the parrot.Animals Books
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