Publisher's Synopsis
It is Tommy Stubbins, the cobbler's son, who tells this story of Doctor Dolittle's wonderful voyage to Spidermonkey Island. Tommy Stubbins was a little boy who wanted to be a naturalist when he grew up.
One day he got acquainted with Doctor Dolittle, and after that his dreams began to come true; for that kindly little man promised to teach him all he knew about animals and their languages, and to take him along on his next voyage of discovery. They decided where to go by opening the atlas with their eyes shut and touching the page with a pencil.
All in all it was perhaps the most amazing voyage that has ever been heard of. The excitement began with four stowaways (one of them the cat's-meat-man!); then came the Doctor's discovery of the key to the language of the shellfish, through his meeting with a Fidgit. After that, events crowd thick and fast: the stop at a Spanish island where the Doctor creates a sensation as matador at a bullfight: the shipwreck; the landing on a Floating Island; and all the adventures there till the Doctor is crowned king by the devoted natives and has to be got away home to Puddleby by stealth.
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle is three or four times as long as The Story of Doctor Dolittle and, therefore, three or four times as funny. Most writers would never have been able to "do it again" after writing such a book as the first one; but Mr. Lofting's second book is even more delightful than the first.
Lightly edited for modern readers. Newly designed and typeset by Waking Lion Press.
