The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  (English, Paperback, Adams Douglas)

The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy follows the incredible adventures of an ordinary man, Arthur Dent, as he embarks upon a journey across the universe.

Summary Of The Books

The series follows the adventures of Arthur Dent, an unsuspecting earthling, and his alien friend Ford Prefect, as they travel all across the universe after the sudden destruction of earth. Though called a trilogy, the series features four books in this edition and five books in all.

In The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, Arthur Dent would never forget that Thursday afternoon when his house was demolished. As he was coping with the loss of his home, entire planet Earth was also run down, apparently to make way for a hyperspace bypass. To add to his already perplexed state of mind, his best friend, Ford Prefect, reveals that he is actually an alien from a small planet near Betelgeuse. They soon find themselves lost in outer space with nothing more than a towel on their bodies and a book titled Don't Panic.

In The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, having understood everything about space, time, and matter, Arthur and Ford are now left with only one problem at hand: food. In the second part of the series, they travel across the universe in search of a place to eat. However, they end up altering the fate of human history.

In Life, The Universe, And Everything, as the exhilarating journey of Arthur continues through space and time, he finds himself living in a cave on prehistoric Earth. The events in the previous part of the series have changed everything on the planet, which is now on the verge of a galactic war. Arthur is soon rescued by Ford and they reach Lord's stadium but only two days before the world is to end.

In So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish, everything seems to come back to normal as Arthur returns home (which is strange as it was destroyed when he had left). He soon finds out that Earth was restored by dolphins, which have now gone missing. He joins Ford one last time to hitchhike across the galaxy to find out God's final message of Creation.

Originally written for a BBC radio show, the series features a total of five books. It has been adapted for a movie, a television series, computer games, and comic books. A sixth book titled And Another Thing was written after Adams' death by Eoin Colfer which carries on the story from where it was left off.

About Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams was a celebrated English writer and humorist.

He is best known for his science-fiction series The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. He also co-authored a humorous dictionary of place names and word roots titled The Meaning of Liff and wrote detective novels Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. He also wrote for the widely popular British series Doctor Who.

His writings belong to genres of science fiction, fantasy, and mystery. The stories are always marked with adventure and subtle humour. Though based in fantasy and widely read by children, his works are often held to carry philosophical subtext about human life.

Adams was born in 1952 in Cambridge, England.  He completed his BA in English literature from St John's College, Cambridge, in 1974. He wrote extensively while he was at college and even managed to secure himself a place in Footlights, Cambridge's elite comedy club. In his early career he wrote for Monty Python television series and a few radio shows. He finally managed to break through with The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy series, which went on to become a huge international success. He died in 2001.