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| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | |
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 Cover of the original UK paperback edition of the novel, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Hipgnosis and Ian Wright. The back cover contained the slogan "DON'T PANIC" in the same colour-video-screen style.[1] |
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| Author | Douglas Adams |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
| Genre(s) | Comedy, Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Pan Books |
| Publication date | 12 October 1979 |
| Media type | Paperback and hardcover |
| Pages | 180 pp (UK Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-330-25864-8 |
| OCLC Number | 24722438 |
| Followed by | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe |
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the title of the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams's radio series of the same name. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979.[2]
The namesake of the novel is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a fictional guide book for hitchhikers (inspired by the Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe) written in the form of an encyclopedia.
Contents |
Plot summary
The book begins with contractors arriving at Arthur Dent's house, in order to demolish it to make way for a bypass. His friend, Ford Prefect, arrives while Arthur is lying in front of the bulldozers, to stop them from demolishing it. He tries to explain to Arthur that he is actually from a planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse and that the Earth is about to be demolished. The Vogons, an alien race, intend to destroy Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass.
The two escape by hitching a lift on one of the Vogons' ships; this is, however, against Vogon regulations and when the pair are discovered, they are tortured with a rendition of Vogon poetry, the third worst in the known Universe, and then thrown into space. They are, very improbably, picked up by the Heart of Gold, a ship powered by an infinite improbability drive, and has been stolen by Ford's semi-cousin and President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zaphod, accompanied by Trillian and the clinically depressed robot Marvin, is searching for the legendary planet of Magrathea, which had manufactured luxury planets. Ford is initially skeptical, but they do, in fact, find Magrathea.
There, Arthur, after being separated from the rest of the group, is taken to the interior of the planet by Slartibartfast, a native of the planet. The others are kidnapped. Slartibartfast explains to Arthur that the Earth is actually a supercomputer commissioned and paid for by a race of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings. These creatures had earlier built a supercomputer named Deep Thought, to calculate the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. This computer, after seven and a half million years of calculating, had announced that the Answer is in fact 42. Being unsatisfied with the Answer, they set about finding the Question. Deep Thought designs a computer, the Earth, to calculate the Question. However, ten million years later, and just five minutes before the completion of the program, the Earth is demolished by the Vogons. The manifestations of two of these beings, Frankie and Benjy Mouse, had arrived on Magrathea on the Heart of Gold, disguised as Trillian's pet mice.
The mice realise that Arthur, as a last-generation organic byproduct of the computer's matrix, has the Question imprinted into his brain and offer to buy his brain from him. Arthur disagrees, and a fight ensues. The mice are about to cut Arthur's head open, when klaxons all over the planet create a diversion, in which they escape. The galactic police had arrived on the planet to arrest Zaphod. The group is attacked by 2 members of the police, who abruptly die when their life support systems fail: Marvin had explained his view of the universe to the mother ship's computer and it committed suicide, taking their life support systems with it.
The group decides to go to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe for lunch.
Illustrated Edition
"The Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" is a specially designed book made in 1994. It was first printed in the United Kingdom by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, Limited and in the United States by Harmony Books (who sold it for $42). It is an oversized book, and came in silver-foil "holographic" covers in both the UK and US markets. It features the first appearance of the 42 Puzzle, designed by Adams himself, a photograph of Adams and his literary agent Ed Victor as the two space cops, and many other designs by Kevin Davies, who has participated in many Hitchhiker's related projects since the stage productions in the late 1970s. Davies himself appears as Prosser. This edition is out of print - Adams bought up many remainder copies and sold them, autographed, on his website.
Audiobook adaptations
There have been three audiobook recordings of the novel. The first was an abridged edition (ISBN 0-67162-964-6), recorded in the mid-1980s by Stephen Moore, best known for playing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in the radio series, LP adaptations and in the TV series. In 1990, Adams himself recorded an unabridged edition for Dove Audiobooks (ISBN 1-55800-273-1), later re-released by New Millennium Audio (ISBN 1-59007-257-X) in the United States and available from BBC Audiobooks in the United Kingdom. Also by arrangement with Dove, ISIS Publishing Ltd produced a numbered exclusive edition signed by Douglas Adams (ISBN 1-85695-028-X) in 1994.To tie-in with the 2005 film, actor Stephen Fry, the film's voice of the Guide, recorded a second unabridged edition (ISBN 0-73932-220-6).
Film adaptation
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was adapted into a science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings and released on April 28, 2005 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in the USA and Canada. It was rolled out to cinemas worldwide during May, June, July, August and September.
Series
The deliberately misnamed Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy Trilogy consists of five books: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1979), 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). On 16 September 2008 it was announced that Irish author Eoin Colfer is to pen a sixth book. The book, entitled And Another Thing..., was published in October 2009, on the 30th anniversary of the publication of the original novel.[3]
Awards
- Number one on the Sunday Times best seller list (1979)
- "Golden Pan" (From his publishers for reaching the 1,000,000th book sold) (1984)
- Waterstone's Books/Channel Four's list of the 'One Hundred Greatest Books of the Century', at number 24. (1996)
- BBC's "Big Read", an attempt to find the "Nation's Best-loved book", ranked it number four. (2003)
See also
Spelling of Hitchhiker's Guide for variations in the spelling of the title.
External links
- Review by StarlightFading.net
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on Literapedia
- Audio review and discussion of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy at The Science Fiction Book Review Podcast
References
- ^ Neil Gaiman (1988). DON'T PANIC: The official Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy companion. Titan Books. pp. 50. ISBN 1852860138. OCLC 24722438.
- ^ Webb, Nick (6 October 2003). Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams. Chatham, Kent: Headline. pp. 157. ISBN 0-7553-1155-8.
- ^ "And another thing...". The Today Programme (BBC). 17 September 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7619000/7619708.stm. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
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