The Story of Doctor Dolittle

File:The Story of Doctor Dolittle.djvu The Story of Doctor Dolittle is a 1920 book about Doctor John Dolittle and his animals.[1] This book is the first in a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting. The Story of Doctor Dolittle is about a doctor who can speak with the animals in their own languages. He starts treating animals instead of human patients.

The book is set in Victorian England.[2] Dolittle lives in the English village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh in the West Country. He has many friends, like Tommy Stubbins and Matthew Mugg, the Cats'-Meat Man. His house is filled with animals. He owns a parrot called Polynesia, a pig called Gub-Gub, a dog called Jip, a duck called Dab-Dab, a monkey called Chee-Chee, an owl called Too-Too, and a white mouse named "Whitey". He also owns a gazelle-unicorn cross called "pushmi-pullyu" ("push-me—pull-you") that has two heads, one at the back and one at the front of the body. The doctor in this first book takes a ship to Africa to cure the animals there.

References

  1. Charla R. Pfeffinger; Suzanne I. Barchers, Multi-Grade Readers Theatre: Stories about Short Story and Book Authors (Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2011), p. 129
  2. Helge Nowak, Literature in Britain and Ireland: A History (Tübingen: Francke, A., 2008), p. 412