The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922) is a children’s fantasy novel by Hugh Lofting. The novel is the second 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 nature and moral worldview, Lofting’s books have inspired numerous adaptations for theater, film, and television.
Doctor John Dolittle is an ordinary physician with an extraordinary gift. When Tommy Stubbins finds a badly injured squirrel, he goes around town asking for help. Told to pay a visit to the Doctor, he arrives at his clinic he discovers a strange world of wild and exotic animals. When Doctor Dolittle arrives home from a journey, he heals the squirrel and welcomes Tommy to stay. Now a student of Dolittle, Tommy learns from Polynesia the parrot how to communicate with all animals, and befriends the Wiff-Waff fish, Dab-Dab the duck, and others. When a Purple Bird of paradise arrives at the clinic with news that a friend of the Doctor’s has gone missing on Spider Monkey Island, the group embarks on a voyage across the world. On their way to the coast of South America, they make a stop in Spain where the Doctor competes with local matadors to end the tradition of bullfighting. After a shipwreck strands Tommy alone, he must enlist the help of a pod of porpoises to make it to Spider Monkey Island, where he will hopefully find his friends. Featuring war between the Bagjagderags and the Popsipetels, as well as a magical creature known as the Great Glass Sea Snail, The Voyages 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 Lofting’s The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle is a classic of English children’s fiction reimagined for modern readers.
About the author
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.More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
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