Doctor Dolittle in the Moon

Doctor Dolittle in the Moon by Hugh Lofting

Doctor Dolittle in the Moon opens with Thomas Stubbins, secretary to John Dolittle, explaining the difficulty of recording the expedition. He, the Doctor, Chee-Chee the monkey, and Polynesia the parrot land on the Moon riding the giant moth Jamaro Bumblelily, subsisting on chocolate and breathing through orange moon-bells until they adjust to the atmosphere. They trek across a volcanic, sand-covered landscape toward a tree the Doctor had spotted, camping beneath its enormous, moaning branches and sensing unseen watchers. Food and water run out, and the party nearly perishes of thirst before Chee-Chee's foraging saves them and leads them to a great forested plateau, where they hear strange, orchestral music and find giant asparagus-like trees, a hollowed possible dug-out canoe, and a vast lake devoid of fish. They build a raft, discover enormous human footprints along a riverbank, and sense they are being deliberately avoided by the Moon's animal life. Settling near the jungle's edge, the Doctor investigates the Vegetable Kingdom's language, discovering that trees converse through branch gestures, scent codes, and wind-tuned "singing." Chee-Chee recounts his grandmother's monkey history of "the Days Before There Was a Moon," including the tale of Otho Bludge, a prehistoric artist who carved a portrait of a vanishing fairy girl named Pippiteepa and kept her blue-bead bracelet. The travelers make protective clothing and sandals from plant fiber as they all grow rapidly larger from the moon diet, and they devise smoke signals and wind-direction tests (nearly injuring the Doctor with explosive Jing-jing bark) to navigate without a working compass. The Doctor converses at length with the intelligent, sight-possessing Vanity Lilies, learns of the deadly Poison/Vampire Lily, and later communes with the Whispering Vines, who reveal the existence of a governing Council that has ended all warfare between species on the Moon, though they clam up after nearly mentioning "the President." That night countless giant insects and birds gather, and finally the Moon Man himself appears — an enormous, limping prehistoric human who turns out to be Otho Bludge, still wearing Pippiteepa's bracelet, now grown to giant size and long isolated after being flung from Earth when the Moon split off. As President of the Council, he explains he summoned the Doctor via the moth (drawn by lottery) to treat his own gout and the ailments of numerous giant insects, having learned of Dolittle's reputation through a kingfisher accidentally carried to the Moon by a volcanic eruption. The Doctor treats a massive assembly of afflicted creatures and then Otho Bludge himself. Overhearing the Doctor's worry about Stubbins's parents, the Council secretly arranges to send Stubbins home alone: the Moon Man seizes him at the water hole and puts him aboard Jamaro Bumblelily against his will, though Stubbins manages to snatch the horn portrait of Pippiteepa in the struggle, and Polynesia catches up briefly to relay the Doctor's message not to worry and to watch for a second smoke signal. Stubbins lands alone on Salisbury Plain, now nine feet nine inches tall and dressed in bark clothing, terrifying a farm laborer and a farmhouse couple. He joins gipsies, then hires himself to a circus as a giant lecturer for one month under his own terms, earning money and clothes before making his way back to Puddleby. He reassures his parents and the Cats'-meat-Man Matthew Mugg, then returns to the Dolittle household, where Jip, Dab-Dab, Too-Too, Gub-Gub, the white mouse, and Cheapside the sparrow receive the news that the Doctor remains behind on the Moon. Stubbins takes over the Doctor's household duties, and he, Jip, and Too-Too keep nightly watch on the Moon, waiting for the promised second smoke signal announcing John Dolittle's return.

By Hugh Lofting · First published 1928 · Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Fantasy · 25 chapters · 50,272 words

First lines

In writing the story of our adventures in the Moon I, Thomas Stubbins, / secretary to John Dolittle, M. D. (and son of Jacob Stubbins, the cobbler / of Puddleby-on-the-Marsh), find myself greatly puzzled. It is not an / easy task, remembering day by day and hour by hour those crowded and / exciting weeks. It is true I made many notes for the Doctor, books full / of them. But that information was nearly all of a highly scientific / kind. And I feel that I should tell the story here not for the scientist / so much as for the general reader. And it is in that I am perplexed.

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children's literature · fantasy · adventure · science fiction · anthropomorphic animals · space exploration · moon travel · talking animals · magical realism · whimsical · imaginative · Victorian era

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