The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (novel)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first of six books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction "trilogy" by Douglas Adams. The novel is an adaptation of the first four parts of Adams' radio series of the same name. The novel was first published in London on 12 October 1979.[2] It sold 250,000 copies in the first three months.[3]

For other uses, see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (disambiguation).

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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 featured the slogan "DON'T PANIC" in the same colour-video-screen style.[1]
AuthorDouglas Adams
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThe Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
GenreComic science fiction
PublisherPan Books
Publication date
  • 12 October 1979 (UK)
  • October 1980 (US)
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback)
ISBN0-330-25864-8
LC ClassPR6051.D3352
Followed byThe Restaurant at the End of the Universe 

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.

Plot summary

Earthman Arthur Dent is saved by his friend, Ford Prefect—an alien researcher for the titular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which provides info on every planet in the galaxy—from the Earth just before it is destroyed by the alien Vogons. After being tossed out of the Vogon ship that they hitched a ride on, Arthur and Ford are rescued by the Heart of Gold, a spaceship driven by Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's semi-cousin and the President of the Galaxy. The ship's crew—Arthur, Ford, Zaphod, a depressed robot named Marvin, and a human woman named Trillian—embark on a journey to find the legendary planet known as Magrathea.

On Magrathea, the five are taken into the planet's centre by a man named Slartibartfast. There, they learn that in the distant past a race of "hyperintelligent, pan-dimensional beings" created a supercomputer named Deep Thought to determine the answer to the "Ultimate Question to Life, the Universe, and Everything", which Deep Thought found to be the number 42. Deep Thought tells its creators that the answer makes no sense to them because they didn't know what the "Ultimate Question" had been in the first place, so he suggested designing an even greater computer to determine what the Ultimate Question was. This computer is actually the planet Earth, which was constructed by the Magratheans, and was five minutes away from finishing its task and figuring out the Ultimate Question when the Vogons destroyed it. The pet mice Trillian has are actually part of the group of hyperintelligent superbeings. They reject the idea of building a new Earth to start the process over and offer to buy Arthur's brain in case it contains the question, leading to a fight when he declines. Zaphod saves Arthur from having his brain removed, the five escape Magrathea, and decide to go to The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

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 and in the United States by Harmony Books (who sold it for $42.00). 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.

In other media

Audiobook adaptations

There have been three audiobook recordings of the novel. The first was an abridged edition (ISBN 0-671-62964-6), 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 0-7393-2220-6).

Television series
Main article: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV series)

The popularity of the radio series gave rise to a six-episode television series, directed and produced by Alan J. W. Bell, which first aired on BBC 2 in January and February 1981. It employed many of the actors from the radio series and was based mainly on the radio versions of Fits the First through Sixth. A second series was at one point planned, with a storyline, according to Alan Bell and Mark Wing-Davey that would have come from Adams's abandoned Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen project (instead of simply making a TV version of the second radio series). However, Adams got into disputes with the BBC (accounts differ: problems with budget, scripts, and having Alan Bell involved are all offered as causes), and the second series was never made. Elements of Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen were instead used in the third novel, Life, the Universe and Everything.

The main cast was the same as the original radio series, except for David Dixon as Ford Prefect instead of McGivern, and Sandra Dickinson as Trillian instead of Sheridan.

Film adaptation
Main article: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was adapted into a science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings and released on 28 April 2005 in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in the United States and Canada. It was rolled out to cinemas worldwide during May, June, July, August and September.

Series

The deliberately misnamed Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy "Trilogy" consists of six books, five written by Adams: 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 was 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.[4]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was never titled "trilogy." It was called that by readers, but the word "trilogy" doesn't appear on the cover of the first three books and was not used until the publication of the fourth book.

Reception

Greg Costikyan reviewed The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy in Ares Magazine #6 and commented that "The Hitchhiker's Guide is written with superb English wit, far more humorous than any American sitcom."[5]

Legacy

The "Babel fish", a creature used in the novel that feeds on brainwaves and can instantly translate alien languages, inspired the name of Babel Fish, the first free online language translator, which launched in 1997.[6]

When Elon Musk's Tesla Roadster was launched into space on the maiden flight of the Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018, it had the words DON'T PANIC on the dashboard display and carried amongst other items a copy of the novel and a towel.[7][8]

Awards
  • Number one on the Sunday Times best seller list (1979)
  • Author received the "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.

References
  1. Neil Gaiman (1988). DON'T PANIC: The official Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy companion. Titan Books. p. 50. ISBN 1-85286-013-8. OCLC 24722438.
  2. Webb, Nick (6 October 2003). Wish You Were Here: The Official Biography of Douglas Adams. Chatham, Kent: Headline. p. 157. ISBN 0-7553-1155-8.
  3. "1000 novels everyone must read: Science Fiction & Fantasy (part one)". The Guardian. 22 January 2009. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  4. "And another thing..." The Today Programme. BBC. 17 September 2008. Retrieved 16 December 2008.
  5. Costikyan, Greg (January 1981). "Books". Ares Magazine. Simulations Publications, Inc. (6): 32.
  6. Miller, Michael (2004). 501 web site secrets : unleash the power of Google, Amazon, eBay, and more. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley. p. 183. ISBN 0-7645-6872-8. OCLC 55477510.
  7. "SpaceX's historic Falcon Heavy successfully launches". Techcrunch. 7 February 2018.
  8. "Tweet by Elon Musk".

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