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The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (collective work) (edit title/settings)

by Douglas Adams (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

At last in one complete volume, here are the five classic novels from Douglas Adams’s beloved Hitchiker series. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Seconds before the Earth is demolished for a galactic freeway, Arthur Dent is saved by Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised Guide .... read more

Books in This Collection

  1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

    by Douglas Adams (Author)

    The first of six books in this "trilogy" which is adapted from Adams' radio series with the same name.

  2. The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

    by Douglas Adams (Author)

    Facing annihilation at the hands of the warlike Vogons? Time for a cup of tea! Join the cosmically displaced Arthur Dent and his uncommon comrades in arms in their desperate search for a place to eat, as they hurtle across space powered by pure...

  3. Life, the Universe and Everything

    Life, the Universe and Everything

    by Douglas Adams (Author)

    The unhappy inhabitants of planet Krikkit are sick of looking at the night sky above their heads–so they plan to destroy it. The universe, that is. Now only five individuals stand between the killer robots of Krikkit and their goal of total...

  4. So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

    So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

    by Douglas Adams (Author)

    Back on Earth with nothing more to show for his long, strange trip through time and space than a ratty towel and a plastic shopping bag, Arthur Dent is ready to believe that the past eight years were all just a figment of his stressed-out...

  5. Mostly Harmless

    Mostly Harmless

    by Douglas Adams (Author)

    Douglas Adams is back with the amazing, logic-defying, but-why-stop-now fifth novel in the Hitchhiker Trilogy. Here is the epic story of Random, who sets out on a transgalactic quest to find the planet of her ancestors. Line drawings. ...

Summary edit see section history

The various versions follow the same basic plot but they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote the story substantially for each new adaptation. Throughout all versions, the series mostly follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman, although the story also... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The various versions follow the same basic plot but they are in many places mutually contradictory, as Adams rewrote the story substantially for each new adaptation. Throughout all versions, the series mostly follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, a hapless Englishman, although the story also follows the adventure of other major characters: Ford Prefect, an alien from a small planet somewhere in the vicinity of Betelgeuse who is a researcher for the eponymous guidebook; Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's semi-cousin and the Galactic President; the depressed robot Marvin, the Paranoid Android, and Trillian, formerly known as Tricia McMillan, a woman Arthur once met at a party in Islington and the only other human survivor of the Earth's destruction.

Characters edit see section history

Show all 56 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “DON'T PANIC!”
  • “Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.”
  • “Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.”
  • “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
  • “It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem. For instance, on the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much--the wheel, New York, wars and so on--while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man--for precisely the same reasons”
  • “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime, doubly-so.”
  • “I'm so amazingly cool you could keep a side of meat inside me for a month. I am so hip I have difficulty seeing over my pelvis.”
    Zaphod Beeblebrox
  • “My doctor says that I have a malformed public duty gland and a natural deficiency of moral fiber, and that I am therefore excused from saving Universes.”
    Ford Prefect
  • “Forty-Two.”
  • “Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it.”
    Arthur Dent

First Sentence edit see section history

Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Introduction: A Guide to the Guide

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Life, the Universe and Everything

So Long, and Thanks for all the Fish

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe

Mostly Harmless

Glossary edit see section history

  • The Thumb: Short squat black rod, smooth and matte with a couple of flat switches and dials at one end. The Thumb is used by Hitchhikers throughout the Galaxy to flag down passing starships. Half the electronic engineers in the galaxy are constantly trying to find fresh ways of jamming the signals generated by the Thumb, while the other half are constantly trying to find fresh ways of jamming the jamming signals
  • Towel: Just about the most massively useful thing any interstellar Hitchhiker can carry. For one thing it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth on the cold moons of Jaglan Beta, sunbathe on it on the marble beaches of Santraginus Five, huddle beneath it for protection from the Arcturan Megagnats as you sleep beneath the stars of Kakrafoon, use it to sail a miniraft down the slpow heavy river Moth, wet it for use in hand to hand combat, wrap it round your head to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal, and even dry yourself off with it if it still seems clean enough.
  • Babel Fish: A living fish which, when placed in your ear, will live there and translate any form of language for you.
  • GPP: Genuine People Personalities.
  • Deep Thought: The second-largest computer ever made. It was the size of a small city. Its main console was installed in a specially designed executive office, mounted on an enormous executive desk of finest ultramahagony topped with rich ultrared leather. The dark carpeting was discreetly sumptuous, exotic potted plants and tastefully engraved prints of the principal computer programmers and their families were deployed liberally about the room, and stately windows looked out upon a tree-lined public square.
  • 42: The Answer to the Great Question Of Life, The Universe, And Everything. The problem is that nobody really knows what the question is.
  • Infinite Improbability Drive: The Infinite Improbability Drive simultaneously places a starship at every conceivable point in the universe, thereby eliminating all that tedious mucking about in hyperspace. It uses vast amounts of improbability, and many silly things happen in its wake.
  • Heart Of Gold: The Heart Of Gold is equipped with the new Infinite Improbability Drive. The core of this drive is made of solid gold, thus the name. It is one hundred and fifty meters long, shaped like a sleek running shoe, and perfectly white.
  • Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic: A small black device, the Sub-Etha Sens-O-Matic alerts Hitch Hikers to passing spacecraft.
  • Share and Enjoy: "Share and Enjoy" is, of course, the company motto of the hugely successful Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints division, which now covers the major land masses of three medium sized planets and is the only part of the Corporation to have shown a consistent profit in recent years.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. (standard series)
This book is in Barnes & Noble Leatherbound Classics. (standard series)
This is book 51 of 98 in Modern Library's 100 Best Novels: Reader's List. (authoritative list)

Preceded by Trader, and followed by The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Douglas Adams (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Portland House
Country: United States
Publication Date: 1997
ISBN: 0345391802
Page Count: 720

Awards edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: 95037384
  • Dewey: 823.914

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

mild language, mild sexual content, adult humor

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Radio Scripts
  • The Salmon of Doubt
  • Don't Panic
  • Wish You Were Here
  • The Science of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Primary Phase (BBC Radio Collection)
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Secondary Phase
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Tertiary Phase
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quandary Phase
  • The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quintessential Phase

Books Influenced by This Book edit see section history

   
  • And Another Thing...
  • Regarding Ducks and Universes

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