The Story of Doctor Dolittle

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The Story of Doctor Dolittle (1920) is a childrens fantasy novel by Hugh Lofting. The novel is the first in a series of fifteen books featuring Doctor Dolittle, a character created by Lofting in letters written to his wife and children at home while he served in the Great War. Beloved by generations of adults and children for their imaginative and moral worldview, Loftings books have inspired numerous adaptations for theater, film, and television.

Doctor John Dolittle is an ordinary physician with an extraordinary gift. Struggling to maintain his clinic, which he runs at the house of his older sister, Dolittle turns his attention to caring for his vast collection of animals from around the world. When his parrot Polynesia teaches him how to speak with animals, however, his dwindling fortunes are reversed, and Dolittle establishes a successful veterinary clinic. As word of his skill reaches others, he is recruited for a voyage to Africa, where help is needed in order to cure an epidemic ravaging the monkey population. When a shipwreck leaves him stranded in a hostile kingdom, however, Doctor Dolittle needs the help of the very monkeys he has come to save in order to escape the clutches of Jolliginkis king. Featuring pirates, crocodiles, and a magical creature known as a pushmi-pullyu, The Story of Doctor Dolittle is a delightful work of fantasy for children and adults alike.

With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Hugh Loftings The Story of Doctor Dolittle is a classic of English childrens fiction reimagined for modern readers.

Author Bio

Hugh Lofting (1886-1947) was an English writer, soldier, and civil engineer. Born in Berkshire, England, Lofting was raised in a family with Irish and English parentage. Educated at Mount St Mary's College, Lofting matriculated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied civil engineering between 1905 and 1906. After working for several years as a civil engineer, Lofting enlisted in the Irish Guards in order to fight in the Great War. Horrified by his experience in combat, Lofting wrote creative letters home to his wife and children that originated his legendary character Doctor Dolittle, a physician with the unique ability to speak with animals. Gravely wounded in France, Lofting returned home briefly before moving with his family to Connecticut. In 1920, he published The Story of Doctor Dolittle, the first in a series of fifteen novels and short story collections for children that have inspired numerous adaptations for theater, film, and television. In addition to these novels, Lofting published several other works for children--including picture books and poems--as well as Victory for the Slain (1942), a long antiwar poem and his only work written for adult readers.