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The fleet arrives, causing mass chaos on Earth. Its leader, Prostetnic Jeltz, announces that Earth has been scheduled for demolition and unceremoniously destroys it. Ford manages to hitch a ride for himself and Arthur on Jeltz’s starship, where Arthur learns about Ford’s true origins, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the ...
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Introduction. The story, which contains excerpts from The...
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the first book in Douglas Adams’s series of five novels tracing Arthur Dent’s journey through space. The second installation is called The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and it picks up where The Hitchhiker’s Guide leaves off, following Arthur and his friends as they leave Magrathea and head for a “quick bite” at—of course—the ...
Douglas Adams. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a comedic science fiction novel by British author Douglas Adams, first published in 1979. The novel follows the misadventures of the hapless human Arthur Dent after he is saved from Earth’s destruction by Ford Prefect, a friend who turns out to be an alien.
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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the first book (1979) in the highly popular series of comic science fiction novels by British writer Douglas Adams. The saga mocks modern society with humour and cynicism and has as its hero a hapless, deeply ordinary Englishman (Arthur Dent) who unexpectedly finds himself adrift in a universe characterized by ...
Arthur Dent, whose house is about to be demolished for a planned road bypass, is lying down in front of a bulldozer when his friend Ford Prefect arrives and tells him that it is imperative that they go to the pub immediately. There Ford explains that he is actually from a planet near Betelgeuse and that another alien species, the Vogons, are about to destroy the Earth to make space for a hyperspatial express route. Meanwhile, Zaphod Beeblebrox, president of the Galaxy, and his human female friend Trillian steal the Heart of Gold spaceship. Ford and Arthur hitch a ride on a Vogon destructor ship, and Ford lends Arthur the electronic guidebook The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and gives him a Babel fish to stick in his ear to translate alien speech. The Vogon ship captain has Ford and Arthur ejected into space, but the Heart of Gold, which has an Infinite Improbability Drive, picks them up 29 seconds later. The drive makes it possible to traverse interstellar space almost instantly but also causes Ford to (briefly) turn into a penguin.
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Zaphod sends his depressive robot, Marvin, to escort the hitchhikers to the bridge. Later that night, the Heart of Gold reaches its destination—the legendary planet Magrathea, which in the past built planets to order for wealthy customers but later disappeared. However, Magrathea, after sending a message that it is closed for business, fires missiles at the Heart of Gold. The ship’s computer is unable to take evasive action, but Arthur engages the Infinite Improbability Drive, and the missiles turn into a sperm whale and a bowl of petunias; both fall to the planet’s surface. Everything seems fine, except that Trillian’s pet mice, Benjy and Frankie, escape their cage.
On Magrathea, Zaphod, Trillian, and Ford explore the planet’s tunnels, leaving Marvin and Arthur to guard the entrance. Arthur encounters an elderly native of the planet, who introduces himself as Slartibartfast and explains that the populace is not dead but were sleeping until the economy improved. They are now engaged in building a second Earth, having been commissioned by mice, which are really hyperintelligent pandimensional beings, to build the first Earth. These beings had built a supercomputer, Deep Thought, to determine the answer to life, the universe, and everything. After a period of 7.5 million years, the computer declared the answer to be 42. The computer designed a more powerful computer, Earth, to find the question to which 42 is the answer. Earth had nearly completed its calculations when the Vogons destroyed it. Slartibartfast brings Arthur to meet the mice who commissioned the building of Earth, and they prove to be Benjy and Frankie. Zaphod and Ford suggest that Arthur may have some ideas about the Question, as his “brain was an organic part” of Earth, and Benjy and Frankie decide that they will buy Arthur’s brain and chop it up to look for their answer.
Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, and Trillian are saved by the arrival of the galactic police to arrest Zaphod for the theft of the Heart of Gold. Marvin depresses the computer running the ship and life systems for the police into committing suicide, and the five travelers all escape to the Heart of Gold, after which they head toward the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy first appeared as a 12-part series on BBC radio (1978–80). The five-book series that followed, which Adams called a “trilogy,” sold million of copies worldwide. The books were, in addition to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980), Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish (1984), and Mostly Harmless (1992); after Adams’s death in 2001, a sixth tale, And Another Thing…, written by Eoin Colfer, was published in 2009. The series has been widely translated and adapted for television, theatre, comics, film, and even a computer game.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[ a ][ b ] is a comedy science fiction franchise created by Douglas Adams. Originally a 1978 radio comedy broadcast on BBC Radio 4, it was later adapted to other formats, including novels, stage shows, comic books, a 1981 TV series, a 1984 text adventure game, and 2005 feature film.
Sep 19, 2024 · What follows is a summary of the five novels and the short story. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy begins with Arthur Dent, an ordinary young Englishman, waking to find that his home has ...
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The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name, centering on the adventures of the only man to survive the destruction of Earth; while roaming outer space, he comes to learn the truth behind Earth's existence. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979. [ 2 ]
