The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (Book Analysis)

This practical and insightful reading guide offers a complete summary and analysis of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, including satire, philosophy and the genre of science fiction. The clear and concise style makes for easy understanding, providing the perfect opportunity to improve your literary knowledge in no time.

This clear and detailed 54-page reading guide is structured as follows:

• Biography of Douglas Adams
• Presentation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Summary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• Character study
  • Arthur Dent
  • Ford Prefect
  • Zaphod Beeblebrox
  • Trillian/Tricia McMillan
  • Marvin
• Analysis of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
  • Origins as a radio comedy
  • Cultural influences: Doctor Who and Monty Python
  • The book within the book
  • Science, technology and artificial intelligence

About The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is the first volume in the series of the same name. It tells the story of Arthur Dent, a perfectly ordinary man who is thrust into an extraordinary adventure when he wakes up one fateful morning and discovers that the Earth is scheduled to be demolished that day. He is saved by his friend Ford Prefect, who turns out to be an alien in disguise, and the pair soon find themselves unexpectedly in the company of the President of the Galaxy, Zaphod Beeblebrox, who has just stolen a high-tech spaceship for reasons that he does not entirely understand himself. This motley crew then travels to the legendary planet Magrathea, where a group of highly intelligent beings are attempting to discover the meaning of “life, the universe and everything”, and they discover that Arthur’s brain might just hold the key to solving this riddle.

About Douglas Adams

Douglas Adams was an English writer who was born in Cambridge in 1952. After working briefly as a writer and actor for the comedy television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1969-1974), he rose to fame as the creator of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, a science-fiction comedy radio series which was first broadcast in 1978. The radio series then spawned a series of novel adaptations, which are often described as “a trilogy in five parts”; this series remains Adams’ best-known work. He died of a heart attack in California in 2001.