The story of Doctor Dolittle
Subtitle: being the history of his peculiar life at home and astonishing adventures in foreign parts.
By: Never before printed. Told by Hugh Lofting, illustrated by the author.
Publisher: Frederick A. Stokes Company
Published: 1920
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 180
Description: Dolittle is an English gentleman who finds himself in the wrong occupation, a doctor of people, and gradually withdraws from society becoming a poor down and out town recluse. One day his English speaking pet parrot Polynesia lets him in on a secret that animals have a language of their own. Dolittle, now able to understand the complaints of animals, becomes a successful and world-renowned doctor of animals. Animal language is the central device of the series - in an age when every Disney film features English speaking animals it seems almost normal, but Lofting makes it seem new and marvelous. Indeed, the animals don't speak English, but each species has its own "secret" language - which is not too far from reality with "horse whisperers" and "dolphin languages."