Being an account of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a Trilogy in Five Parts.
It’s a Thursday, Arthur Dent’s house is poised to be demolished for the building of a new motorway. That does not matter much, however, as within minutes earth itself is going to be destroyed to make way for an interplanetary bypass. By a strike of luck Arthur’s best friend, Ford Prefect, turns out to be an alien from Betelgeuse writing articles for the bestselling Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They escape, only to be intercepted by the Vogons, the terrifying race of Galactic civil servants who engineered the Earth’s demise. Arthur and Ford are dumped into hyperspace, but not before they could be submitted to a torture session of Vogon poetry reading. Against (almost) all odds they are rescued in the nick of time by a stolen ship powered by an Infinite Improbability Hyperdrive, which allows it to reach the most improbable places improbably fast. On board, three equally improbable characters: Zaphod Beeblebox, ex Galactic President and conman, who has an ego the size of a small supernova; Trillian, an earth woman who tagged along after they met in a party in Brighton; and Marvin, a very clever, very depressed and extremely depressing robot.In the course of their most enlightening adventures the reader gets to revise its appraisal of mice; witnesses the disappearance of God defeated by a logical paradox; and, about halfway through the book, learns at the answer to the Great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. That is, if he can survive the deadly combination of absurd situations, relentless puns, clever paradoxes and utter irreverence that makes the book a compendium of British humour. An absolute must.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy had an editorial history at least as tortuous as Arthur Dent’s odyssey. Initially broadcasted in 1978 on BBC Radio 4, it underwent many cuts and additions throughout its subsequent publications, before being turned into a film in 2005. The latest book version of the “trilogy” comprises five parts, 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 finally Mostly Harmless, published in 1992. Fans of the cult TV series Doctor Who will note that the author, Douglas Adams, also worked on the show during Tom Baker’s tenancy as the Doctor, in the late 70s, most noticeably City of Death. In this episode, one of my favourite, the Doctor and his companion Romana, on holidays in Paris, must foil a dastardly plot involving the the theft of the Mona Lisa, and incidentally the destruction of Earth. More to come about City of Death in my very own guide to Doctor Who’s universe, if I ever find the courage to write it.
You mentioned the blog in the pub... :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat article! - and The Hitchhiker's Guide is indeed excellent; I especially enjoyed the first two books. The series fades rather towards the end, and the last two don't really have the same flow to them - they feel a bit muddled. He should probably have stopped at the rather unimaginative trilogy-in-three-parts!
Incidentally, there was also a pretty decent televisoin series made in the early 80s - better in many ways than the recent film. Additionally, an authorised "sixth book" has been published since Adams died - "And Another Thing...". I haven't read it, and probably won't as it was written by another author and is unlikely to be in the same class as the originals.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment ! My very first one. For the moment I have read only the first two books. The book version I have, borrowed from St John's library, only have four parts anyway. Sadly it seems to be the rule with sequels (with noticeable exceptions, like Blackadder which gets better and better with time)
ReplyDeleteI am also usually suspicious of different authors continuing a franchise, but I might give a try to the film - the library possesses it too.