Doctor Dolittle's Caravan

Doctor Dolittle #6

by Hugh Lofting

John Dolittle takes his circus to London, where with the help of the canary Pippinella he stages a bird opera.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Fantasy, Animals, Adventure, Young Adult

242 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Hugh Lofting was a British author, trained as a civil engineer, who created the character of Doctor Dolittle — one of the classics of children's literature.

Lofting was born in Maidenhead, England, to English and Irish parents. His early education was at Mount St Mary's College in Sheffield, after which he went to the United States, completing a degree in civil engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He traveled widely as a civil engineer before enlisting in the Irish Guards to serve in World War I. Not wishing to write to his children of the brutality of the war, he wrote imaginative letters that were the foundation of the successful Doctor Dolittle novels for children. Seriously wounded in the war, he moved with his family to Connecticut in the United States. Lofting was married three times and had three children, one of whom, his son Christopher, is the executor of his literary estate.

"For years it was a constant source of shock to me to find my writings amongst 'juveniles,'" Lofting reported. "It does not bother me any more now, but I still feel there should be a category of 'seniles' to offset the epithet."

Doctor Dolittle
Hugh Lofting's doctor from Puddleby-on-the-Marsh who could speak to animals first saw light in the author's illustrated letters to 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, (in and around the 1840s, according to a date given in The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle). The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed (1920) began the series and won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958.The sequel, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle (1922), won Lofting the prestigious Newbery Medal. Eight more books followed, and after Lofting's death two more volumes, composed of short unpublished pieces, appeared. The series has been adapted for film and television many times, for stage twice, and for radio.
Other Works for Children
The Story of Mrs Tubbs (1923) and Tommy, Tilly, and Mrs. Tubbs (1936) are picture books aimed at a younger audience than the Doctor Dolittle books. They concern the titular old woman, her pets (with whom she can speak) and the animals who help her out of trouble.

Porridge Poetry (1924) is the only non-Dolittle work by Lofting still in print. It is a lighthearted, colorfully illustrated book of poems for children.

Noisy Nora (1929) is a cautionary tale about a girl who is a noisy eater. The book is printed as if hand-written, and the many illustrations often merge with the text.

The Twilight of Magic (1930) is aimed at older readers. It is set in an age when magic is dying and science is beginning. This work is the only one of Lofting's books to be illustrated by another person (Lois Lenski).
Victory for the Slain
Victory for the Slain (1942) is Lofting's only work for adults, a single long poem in seven parts about the futility of war; the refrain "In war the only victors are the slain" permeates the poem. It was published only in the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in the classic Doctor Dolittle series. It's as charming as all the rest, but early on there's a story of a cat who stalks and kills a parrot. That story frightened my son a bit - not so much that he doesn't want to continue, but enought that he insisted on sleeping in our bed last night.

Although that may just have been an excuse. :D

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another charming slice of comic fantasy from Dr. Dolittle and his menagerie. It made me laugh aloud many times. The end.

[Shawn Thrasher · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my favorite Dolittle book in the series as a kid, and re-reading it as a grown up did not change my feelings about it one bit. As a kid, I don't think I knew anything about opera that wasn't in a Bugs Bunny cartoon; now that I know a little bit more, Lofting's wit and parody is pretty clever. His Canary Opera could be a real opera, complete with a tiny temperamental prima donna, mixed reviews, an Andrew Lloyd Webber-esque set, modern music, royal fans. Setting a fantasy is recognizable time period is one of my favorite conceits, and Lofting plunks Dolittle's Caravan right in the middle of a very believable London of 1838 or 1839. Lofting resented having his books referred to as "juvenile literature", and i>Caravan might be the proof that he was writing sophisticated literature that both parents and children could simultaneously enjoy. Like all books in the series, the Dolittlian digressions are many. But the humor is funny (and punny) and the plot (whenever you make your way back to it) is a joy.

[Kailey (Luminous Libro) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Doctor Dolittle meets a beautiful singing canary named Pippinella, and they produce a Canary Opera on the London stage. The Doctor becomes famous for his Canary Opera and Animal Pantomime, and uses his fame to campaign for better treatment of animals.

I love the simple, old-fashioned writing style, and the interesting stories. The Doctor meets such funny characters, both animals and humans, and the plot is engaging and hilarious!

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for Doctor Dolittle The Complete Collection, Vol. 2: Doctor Dolittle's Circus; Doctor Dolittle's Caravan; Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary. I ran into a character limit, so I was forced to continue my comments on the last two books in the volume here. Whoops! I suppose that shows you how much there is to unpack in these stories, and the danger of combining three books of significant length in one binding.

For the first half of the review, please click here.

And now let's continue!

Doctor Dolittle's Caravan

Caravan basically picks up right where Circus left off, and it's another pretty solid book with lots of interesting, well-told adventures. It might be my favorite of the three, although they do all sort of run together when you read them like this.

One weird thing I noticed...Lofting hardly ever mentions the poor, deeply introverted Pushmi-Pullyu, who got dragged away from his home in Africa to make money for the Doctor by being put on display in a circus. He's never a part of the storytelling circle within the Doctor's caravan at night, when the work is done and they're relaxing together as a family. He doesn't join in the pantomime show that the Doctor puts together with all the rest of his animal friends. In fact, there's a bit of a sidenote that says he's put in Matthew's care while the Doctor devotes all his attention and creative energy to these other ideas of his.

That's part of the absentminded selfishness I mentioned earlier; while the Doctor would obviously never be cruel to any animal, he absolutely neglects the Pushmi-Pullyu and never treats him like a part of his central crew. It's disheartening and honestly a little odd, because of course this unusual two-headed creature was one of the things that really stuck in my memory from when I was a kid.

Why is such a unique animal so underutilized in the circus stories, when they only joined the circus because of him? Why does he never get to go on any adventures? Why is he always stuck in his sideshow box, earning a small but steady stream of coins from something he hates - prolonged, open-mouthed attention from a bunch of strangers staring at him - while the Doctor packs his little family off to yet another theater to run yet another play without him?

I get the impression that Lofting wrote the Pushmi-Pullyu into his first Dolittle story without having any ideas of where to take him from there - and quite likely without having planned to write more books in the series. That helps to explain the narrative gaps, and such a major character falling into such a minor role.

For the Complete Collection Volume 2 cover art, the publishers used the Pushmi-Pullyu - on center stage, with Doctor Dolittle in full circus gear. In reality, these center-ring-scenes in Doctor Dolittle's Circus go to a tired old horse named Beppo, for whom Dolittle later establishes a retirement home. This could have been a scene where the Doctor saved the floundering circus by replacing the sick horse, Nino, with his two-headed hoofed wonder. But no...Beppo's the hero, and the Pushmi-Pullyu just stays in his little sideshow area.

And then we come to Doctor Dolittle's Caravan, where the Pushmi-Pullyu continues to be barely present, and the heroine is, instead, a little green canary - a canary crossbred with a greenfinch, and with the most extraordinary singing voice.

Some of Lofting's other progressive views come out over the course of this book. Pippinella is a pretty feminist character; she talks a lot about how females are just as capable and talented as males, but are presented with fewer opportunities. She insists that she's not unique because she's a female canary who sings. While she has a stronger than average voice, all female canaries can and do sing; they're just generally discouraged from doing so, she explains. In fact, she had to be separated from her own family when she was young, because she refused to follow tradition and was verbally and physically attacked by her parents and siblings as they tried to make her behave in the ways that females were supposed to.

It's interesting that human females aren't very prominent in these books, and are often silly, stereotypical, or secondary when they do appear...whereas the female animals (such as Sophie, Polynesia, Dab-Dab, Pippinella) have strong, distinct personalities and often push the central narratives along.

Pippinella's story is a quite interesting one, and I can see why Lofting would stretch it out into essentially two full books. But we'll get to that second book in a minute.

Caravan is split into three acts. Part 1 is Pip's story, Part 2 describes the production and sensational success of "The Canary Opera," and Part 3 rambles off into something a bit less successful by chasing after too many of Dolittle's grand ideas for the betterment of animals. These include the establishment of regular bank accounts in the animals' names, followed by the short-lived animals-only bank, which collapses as soon as the investors realize a bunch of blackbirds aren't going to be depositing a lot of coins once the Doctor has moved on to his next project and is no longer funding them.

The only "wealthy" animals are from the Dolittle family, since they starred in two hit theater productions and subsequently agreed to a series of advertisements from companies trying to ride that wave of popularity. Jip engages in perfume analysis (which is useful once he understands that "roast beef" is not most human ladies' ideal scent), Pip hops in and out of elaborate birdcages to display her approval, and Gub-Gub plays with toys and jumps rope in a shop window. I did chuckle when Gub-Gub...the pig...absolutely refused to advertise strings of sausages. Lofting has a dry, sometimes rather dark sense of humor.

There's some other pretty grim stuff mixed in. When Pip begins narrating the story of her life, she dives right into her deep distrust of cats. The Doctor, who loves all animals and generally thinks the best of everyone, tries to stick up for them and their nature a little bit. No, Pip says, and describes, in detail, the chilling stalking and murder of her parrot friend by a silky white Persian in one of her former homes. Even the Doctor can't really side with the cat after that.

Since the rest of the green canary's story is largely retold in her book, I'll just note a couple other things I found interesting in this one.

(Sidenote: there was a weird section near the end of her story where the tenses changed from past to present, then back to past, then back to present, for no apparent reason. I suppose this edition wasn't trying to fix things like that, or other occasional typos that I noticed, but it did rather bug me. Such careless mistakes that would be so easy to clean up.)

As Lofting wrote more Dolittle books, the increasing amount of thought he put into them showed. I mentioned before that I liked how complicated and interesting and real the Doctor feels, and that's especially true in Caravan, when he talks about his own prominence and popularity in the animal world. That's come up as an occasional annoyance, mostly expressed by Dab-Dab, when he's overrun by animals who need his medical expertise and of course don't pay him for his time, but the Doctor himself generally seems to shrug it off. That's not the case here; at several points, including Pip's initial purchase, he refuses to go into pet shops because the animals inside them will beg him to rescue them...and he simply cannot afford to save them all.

That's a heartbreaking reality that makes this fantasy world feel a little more tangible. Doctor Dolittle may be a remarkable man, but he is still just one man, and despite what Jip might want, he can't possibly provide a home for every single starving dog in London. He will do his best, though, much to Dab-Dab's continual dismay, and the constant emptying of his wallet.

But those things come a bit later. First we get a really, really dark description of a badly run pet shop, where wild birds are captured and die in their cages, battering themselves against the bars as they try to escape. Lofting softens the horrific scene by making the Doctor's rescue a madcap adventure where he disguises himself as a woman to keep the animals from recognizing them and creating an embarrassing (and authorities-summoning) outcry. Of course, he runs into Sarah and later has to abandon his disguise to save himself...and thus ends up taking in two extra dogs after all...but underneath all the humor, the primary message remains.

"I can't understand," the Doctor says, "how any decent person can inflict such misery on living creatures."

I think this is what makes the Dolittle books stand out from the crowd, and last so long in readers' memories - and hearts. These aren't just silly, fanciful little stories about animals. There's real depth to them, and some incredibly strong messages about kindness, fairness, and thinking about the world beyond your own narrow experience.

Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary

I don't know the history behind this book, or why Lofting returned to Pip's story nearly two decades later, but even though we already got quite a bit of her narrative in Caravan, it's not nearly as repetitive as it might sound. They are two books you can read one right after the other, without getting bored or skimming.

The only issue with reading the two so close together is that the inconsistencies become quite visible. Fortunately, there aren't too many, and they don't really change the storyline all that much. Some were clearly made in order to improve the story, or make it work better in longform.

For example, in Caravan, the Doctor visits Aunt Rosie when he's attempting to find Twink, Pip's ex-husband, a canary who's rather stupid but has a beautiful voice - and is thus necessary for their Canary Opera. In The Green Canary, this bit gets skipped, and the Doctor only visits her after the opera is over, when he's searching in earnest for Pip's window cleaner friend. This change ramps up both the drama and the humor, since it creates an opportunity for another Sarah encounter, along with Aunt Rosie being absolutely bewildered by why this stranger in a top hat knows so much about her life - and addresses her by a name she only uses with her close friends and pets.

One other change might be related to Lofting's clear sympathy for the working class. In Caravan, he briefly describes one of Pip's ownership transitions:

The day came when the soldiers were sent to a certain town to put down an uprising of the workers. They were commanded to fire on the crowd, which was unarmed. They did not openly rebel against orders. But being really in sympathy with the workers, they allowed themselves to be defeated. The baggage wagon on which the mascot Pippinella traveled was captured. And the contralto canary found herself suddenly transferred from the position of a pampered regimental pet to the possession of a laboring man who had won her in a raffle.

This scene happens in roughly the same way, in an expanded form, in The Green Canary. The primary difference is that the raffle-winner travels to another town to work in a coal mine with his brother, and retains ownership of Pip until Aunt Rosie visits the mine and purchases her. In Caravan, the coal miner is the raffle-winner's friend. That first guy gets shot - and killed - by a fresh regiment of soldiers who come into the town to replace Pip's defeated troop.

Maybe Lofting wanted to remove a little bit of darkness here, or wanted to give the workers more power and the soldiers less...or maybe it was just cleaner this way, since he didn't have to write in another big war scene. Relevantly, Lofting was a WW1 soldier, who started writing the Dolittle stories as a way to entertain his children from the trenches. His views on war are not subtle, and he has his characters talk about it at several points.

"Oh, it's a messy, stupid business," a messenger pigeon tells Pip at one point. Later, once she's gotten a taste of the action herself, she reiterates: "War at its best is a silly, stupid business."

The coal mine provides interesting opportunities for Lofting to bring up some of his environmental concerns - something that's discussed less than the Doctor's love for animals, but that was clearly important to him, too. "I wondered why men did this," Lofting writes, from Pip's point of view, as she sees the coal-dirty skies and blackened trees. "It did not seem to me that all the coal and all the steel in the world was worth it - ruining the landscape in this way."

It makes me sad, sometimes, to read stories from decades and generations ago that talk so clearly about problems we're still so far from solving...and have only made worse in the meantime.

The entire book isn't like this, of course; amidst the more "grown up" topics, there's lots of humor and adventure, and a solid resolution to the mystery of the lost window cleaner, which may explain why this book was written.

As Pip tells her story over the course of several nights, Gub-Gub stands in for the reader - and particularly the children - by constantly asking: But what about the window cleaner?? What became of him? Why did he leave you on the tower, and how did he end up on the raft? Did you ever find him again??

I wonder if Lofting got a lot of those questions over the years; if, like L. Frank Baum, children wrote to him, pestering him for answers. I'm glad he wrote more of the story; it's not a perfect book, but it's a nice supplement to the circus stories, and I'm glad that Pip and her friend got a happy ending.

I still want to know more about her greenfinch lover, though. He gets a name in this book - Nippit - but there's no further description of his "faithlessness." Pip's story is even inconsistent within Caravan. She first mentions him by referring to the "love song of the greenfinch," where she sings "of my faithless husband running off to America and leaving me weeping by the shore."

A few chapters later, we discover that while she and Nippit were searching for nesting materials, he began talking to a female greenfinch - not a crossbreed like her, and therefore more suited for him, and someone he would inevitably leave her for. Except he doesn't. The three of them perch on a tree branch together that night, and Pip is the one who slinks off in the darkness and tries to wing her way across the ocean to America (or other foreign lands), weeping from heartbreak.

I still wonder what happened to the abandoned Nippit, who lost his ladylove overnight, when he'd actually done nothing wrong. (I wonder, too, if some of Lofting's three marriages filtered into this story - did one of his wives cheat on him? There's a definite darkness to much of Pip's story that often feels personal.)

Despite years of futilely attempting to track down The Green Canary, I don't think it's Lofting's strongest work, and it seems quite possible to read and enjoy his other stories without it. But it's nice to have it included in the full collection, packaged in a spot where it narratively fits. Since it was written so much later than the other Dolittle books, I suspect Pip & Window-Cleaner-Steve's time in Puddleby isn't mentioned elsewhere; that would've been interesting, too, since Dolittle could use a few more human friends. But Dab-Dab probably wouldn't relish the idea of having more mouths to feed and more beds to make. That poor duck. It's no wonder she stopped going on trips with him after a while, and just stayed behind to keep the Puddleby house in order.

[Stef Rozitis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The last really good one of the Doctor Dolittle series (and all of them better than any of the movies made that I have seen). This series have justifiably found a place in "classics".

Of course I found some of the casual sexism and classism irritating, I can't help that but even in these the book at times contradicts and questions its own assumptions (for example as Pippinella explains female canaries can sing but are conditioned not to but she was always too feminist to stay quiet and as a result becomes a star, another example is the way Matthew and Theodosia Mugg become more than their class pigeonhole - even though at times there is comedy derived from the stereotypical mannerisms of the cat's meat man).

There is a lot about animal rights in this book in a very calm and non-forceful way but vegan parents ought to consider adding it t their children's collections. You don't have to be vegan to enjoy the book though it offers a variety of delights such as puns, tall stories, honorable good-guys that always win through and cuteness (eg the pelicans in their outfits).

I remember as a child I always loved Gub-Gub and was irritated by Dab-Dab. I kind of see her point now, although I think she needs to step up and stop being such a stereotype as well! Gub-Gub is still a lot of fun. I think the current generation of children would still like him. The chapters are nice and short and there are pictures, but if your child seems reluctant consider reading to them or with them at least to begin with ;)

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another bedtime success! Reading two chapters a night, the 7 year old was riveted and asked to go read before bed.

[Lora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review… Doctor Doolittle's Caravan

Doctor Doolittle's Caravan is a very interesting story; filled with many talking animals and many adventures John Doolittle helping the animals around him is only part of what makes it an extraordinarily interesting book.
I am unsure as to how many books are in the set. But, I do enjoy the stories overall.

[Christiane · Rating 3 out of 5]

More fun adventures of the Doctor and his animal friends. Originally written in 1924, I read this a month or so ago but I can't remember anything that jumped out at me as objectional. Fans of the Freddy the Pig books by Walter R. Brooks might enjoy these stories as well.

[SheilaRaeO]

Children's

[Imre Palik · Rating 2 out of 5]

feminist crap

[Christine Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Its a great read once it gets going. If you see it around i recommend it for something relaxing.

[Kate H · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Hugh Lofting Doctor Dolittle stories are classics that stand the test of time. I really enjoy them and find them clever and enjoyable. I think the writing can be seen as a bit dated but I think it's still extremely readable.

[Martyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lofting seems to be a very consistent writer. Yet another four-star book. The story in this volume follows on from Doctor Dolittle's Circus and there's plenty of interest and variety in the content, with a few moments which made me chuckle, like the problems Doctor Dolittle had with his skirt!

[Gareth Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost a hundred years old but still a charming story provided one takes account of the era in which it was written. Dr Dolittle takes London by storm and spreads his good-hearted influence among people and animals with scant regard for the financial cost - much to his duck housekeeper’s annoyance!

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each volume of Hugh Lofting's best known works is just as enjoyable as the last! An excellent read!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember the canary opera! Loved this as a kid

[Jenny Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

More adventures from this wonderful man and his menagerie.

[Kristen (belles_bookshelves) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The lives of animals were undoubtedly more interesting."

Again, still going on for longer than I feel like the plot warrants.

[Tamula · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a delight to read this old children’s classic!

[Joanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

what an imagination!!