The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

By: Douglas Adams

Narrated by: Stephen Fry

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Extremely funny . . . inspired lunacy . . . [and] over much too soon.”—The Washington Post Book World

Now celebrating the pivotal 42nd anniversary of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read

It’s an ordinary Thursday morning for Arthur Dent . . . until his house gets demolished. The Earth follows shortly after to make way for a new hyperspace express route, and Arthur’s best friend has just announced that he’s an alien.

After that, things get much, much worse.

With just a towel, a small yellow fish, and a book, Arthur has to navigate through a very hostile universe in the company of a gang of unreliable aliens. Luckily the fish is quite good at languages. And the book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy . . . which helpfully has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large, friendly letters on its cover.

Douglas Adams’s mega-selling pop-culture classic sends logic into orbit, plays havoc with both time and physics, offers up pithy commentary on such things as ballpoint pens, potted plants, and digital watches . . . and, most important, reveals the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Now, if you could only figure out the question. . . .©1980 Serious Productions Ltd; (P)2005 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

Don't panic! Here are words of praise for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

"It's science fiction and it's extremely funny...inspired lunacy that leaves hardly a science fiction cliche alive."

Washington Post

"The feckless protagonist, Arthur Dent, is reminiscent of Vonnegut heroes, and his travels afford a wild satire of present institutions."

Chicago Tribune

"Very simply, the book is one of the funniest SF spoofs ever written, with hyperbolic ideas folding in on themselves."

School Library Journal

"As parody, it's marvelous: It contains just about every science fiction cliche you can think of. As humor, it's, well, hysterical."

Good quarantine read

I've read this book with this performer before and it is just great. The funny light hearted story is perfect while living through a time of so much commotion and uncertainty.

loved it, but one characters voice drove me crazy.

This book is quick, funny, and a nice easy ride. Steven Fry has usually got a pleasant voice, but I hated his portrayal of one character so much i couldn't even listen for a small part.

Comes to a dead stop

The ending is.. a bit abrupt. Apparently I was supposed to know that going in. I really enjoyed it otherwise.

fun book

I thought it was a fun, short little book. If you enjoy British humor, definitely read it

Outstanding and unique

I had never read this book before despite playing the text based game on the Atari home computer years ago. I was delighted at how enjoyable the book was. I have never seen any of the TV shows or films based on this book, but they would be hard pressed to live up to the high standards set by this book. The narrator really adds to the enjoyment of the book. I highly recommend this one.