Doctor Dolittle Series

by Hugh Lofting


Doctor John Dolittle is the central character of a series of children's books by Hugh Lofting starting with the 1920 The Story of Doctor Dolittle. He is a physician who shuns human patients in favour of animals, with whom he can speak in their own languages. He later becomes a naturalist, using his abilities to speak with animals to better understand nature and the history of the world.
Doctor Dolittle first appeared in the author's illustrated letters to his children, written from the trenches during World War I when actual news, he later said, was either too horrible or too dull. The stories are set in early Victorian England, where Doctor John Dolittle lives in the fictional English village of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh in the West Country.
Excerpted from Doctor Dolittle on Wikipedia.

Doctor Dolittle

person AuthorHugh Lofting
language CountryUnited States
api GenreFantasy, Children's Literature, Animals
copyright CopyrightPublic domain in the United States.
camera_alt Book cover-
book_online EbooksProject Gutenberg
description Scans-
headphones AudioLibrivox | Internet Archive
auto_stories Read onlineThe Story of Doctor Dolittle
--Read by Karen Savage--
The Story of Doctor Dolittle, Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts (1920), written and illustrated by the British author Hugh Lofting, is the first of his Doctor Dolittle books, a series of children's novels about a man who learns to talk to animals and becomes their champion around the world. It was one of the novels in the series which was adapted into the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle.


The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
--Read by Karen Savage--
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle is the second of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books. Published in 1922, the writing style is aimed at a more mature audience and features more sophisticated illustrations than its predecessor. The novel's scope is vast; it is nearly five times as long as its predecessor and is divided into six parts. It won the Newbery Medal for 1923. Along with other novels in the series, it was adapted into the 1967 film Doctor Dolittle.


Doctor Dolittle's Post Office
--Read by Phil Chenevert--
Doctor Dolittle's Post Office is the third of Hugh Lofting's Doctor Dolittle books. Set on the West Coast of Africa, the 1923 book follows the episodic format of most other books in the series. In the beginning of the book, Doctor Dolittle helps to capture a slave trader's ship, then organizes the postal service of a small African kingdom, Fantippo, ruled over by King Koko. Mobilizing migrating birds to carry people's mail from continent to continent, Doctor Dolittle effectively anticipates the 20th century invention of air mail. Over the course of later chapters, he discovers a hidden island populated by prehistoric creatures, gets thrown into another African jail, invents animal alphabets, and defeats at least two armies. Each of the animals in the Dolittle family also tells a personal story. The postal program grows into a worldwide postal and publishing service for the benefit of animals everywhere.