The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Douglas Adams (1979)
“The answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42 — and the joke is that we still don't know the question.”
Short Summary
Moments before Earth is demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent is rescued by his friend Ford Prefect — who turns out to be an alien researcher for the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Together they hitch a series of improbable rides across the cosmos, encountering the depressed robot Marvin, the renegade President Zaphod Beeblebrox, and the supercomputer Deep Thought, which reveals that the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42 — a number nobody understands because the question was never properly formulated.
Detailed Summary
The novel opens on an unremarkable Thursday morning in the English countryside. Arthur Dent wakes to find bulldozers preparing to demolish his house to make way for a bypass. He lies in front of them. His friend Ford Prefect arrives, drags Arthur to the pub, and insists he drink several pints quickl...