Doctor Dolittle’s Talking Animals Still Have Much to Say
By James Traub
The Story of Doctor Dolittle” appeared in 1920, and was republished almost annually thereafter, as were many of the 11 other books in the series. In a preface to the 1922 edition, the novelist Hugh Walpole called the book “a work of genius” and “the first real children’s classic since ‘Alice.’” Yet almost everyone knows about Alice, and Pooh, and Peter Rabbit. If it weren’t for the movie versions — first starring Rex Harrison, then Eddie Murphy and, this past winter, Robert Downey Jr. — Doctor Dolittle’s name might be remembered no better than Walpole’s own. I didn’t read Lofting’s books to my son; most of you probably didn’t either. The doctor’s centennial has gone unnoticed. What happened?
... \Doctor Dolittle is a wonderful creation: a Victorian eccentric from the pages of Dickens; a perpetual bachelor who drives conventional humans from his life but is much loved by the poor and the marginal; a gentleman whose exquisite politesse never falters, even before sharks and pirates; a peace-loving naturalist prepared to wage war to defend his friends from evil depredations.
www.nytimes.com/2020/09/09/books/review/doctor-dolittle-hugh-lofting-talking-animals.html