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Cover of Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams

Life, the Universe and Everything

Book 3 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

  • 210 pages · about 4 hours
  • First published 1982
  • 65 editions

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1 About this book

Life, the Universe and Everything (1982) is the third book in the six-volume Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy science fiction "trilogy of six books" by British writer Douglas Adams. The title refers to the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.

The story was originally outlined by Adams as Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen to be a Tom Baker Doctor Who television six-part story, but was rejected by the BBC. It was later considered as a plotline for the second series of the Hitchhiker's TV series, which was never commissioned.

A radio adaptation of Life, the Universe and Everything was recorded in 2003 under the guidance of Dirk Maggs, starring the surviving members of the cast of the original Hitchhiker's radio series. Adams himself, at his own suggestion, makes a cameo appearance; due to his death before production began on the series, this was achieved by sampling his character's dialogue from an audio book of the novel read by Adams that was published in the 1990s.

Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Good for readers who want: fantasy, science fiction, and space travel.

  • Interplanetary voyages
  • Fantasy
  • Science fiction
  • Humor
  • Anachronisms
  • Ford Prefect
  • Arthur Dent
  • Interstellar travel

2 About Douglas Adams

1952–2001

Douglas Noël Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author, humourist, and screenwriter. He wrote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which originated in 1978 as a BBC radio comedy, before developing into a "trilogy" of five books that sold more than 14 million copies in his lifetime. He also adapted it into a 1981 television series, a 1984 video game and a 2005 feature film. Adams was born in Cambridge and raised in Essex.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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