Summary
Chapter 1
- Arthur Dent wakes up and realizes that his house is about to be leveled because of a road being built
- We are introduced to Ford Prefect, an alien who was trapped on Earth while doing reserch for THGG
- Arthur lays in front of the bulldozers to prevent them from leveling his house
- Ford realizes Earth is about to be destroyed and wants to save Ford. He takes him to a bar to
prepare him.
Chapters 2- 3
- Ford and Arthur drink to loosen themselves up for the Intragalactic travel
- Ford tells Arthur that he is a visitor from a planet by Betelguese
- Arthur's house is knocked down by the bulldozers while he's is the bar
- Ships approach Earth to destroy it
Chapters 4-5
- We meet the president of galaxy--an interesting figure. He has two heads and three arms and has served
prison time.
- Zaphod Beeblebrox throws a bomb at the opening ceremony for The Heart of Gold
- Ford and Arthur hitchhike off of Earth and onto one of the Vogon ships that was blowing it up. Vogons
hate hitchhikers, so they are hiding in the servant's area.
- Arthur puts a fish in his ear that translates alien languages.
Chapter 6-9
- The Vogons realize that there are hitchhikers in the ship and come to get them.
- The Vogon reads poetry to them as torture
- Ford and Arthur are thrown into space where they will surely die
- Ford and Arthur are rescued by a passing space ship
Chapters 10-11
- Ford and Arthur have been rescued by a ship run by the Infinite Improbability Drive
- This allows for super-fast travel and as a side-effect it casues improbable things to occur
- Zaphod Beeblebox is on the Heart of Gold with a girl named Trillian
- There is also a depressed robot on board the ship
- It turns out the ship Zaphod has stolen is the same ship that rescued Ford and Arthur
Chapters 12-15
- Ford and Arthur are brought to Zaphod by the depressed robot
- It is revealed that Ford and Zaphod are cousins. Also, Arthur met Zaphod before at an Earth party in
London
- It is revealed that the ship is headed for Magrathea a planet that was believed to exist only as a legend.
- Magrathea was believed to have made planets.
Chapters 16-18
- The planet appears to be completely dead
- Suddenly, there is a computer warning and then the planet shoots missiles at them
- Arthur presses the improbablity button and they avoid destruction when the missiles
are turned into a bowl of petunias and a sperm whale
- They land on Magrathea
Chapters 19-21
- The whale has cracked open the surface of the planet
- The group goes into the entrance and leaves Arthur to stand guard with the depressed robot
- Zaphod reveals to the group that he has self-inflicted brain damage
- Arthur decides to explore and he runs into an old man
Chapters 22-24
- The old man asks Arthur to come with him
- They take a ship into the center of the planet
- The old man (Slartibartfast) tells Arthur that he used to design coastlines for planets
- Arthur is told that Earth was an experiment run by mice
- The people of Mygathrea have been awakened to create a new Earth for the mice.
Chapters 25-28
- Arthur learns how Earth came to be created--the Earth is designed to house a 10 million-year-old experiment
to discover what the question of life is. They already know the anwserto life's great question--forty-two.
Chapters 29-31
- Trillian, Ford, and Zaphod are captured and help captive by the mice
- Zaphod talks some more about his brain damage. He believes that the damaged portion of his brain contains
confidential information
- Arthur is also brought to the mice
- All the spaceship passengers meet with the mice
- The mice want Arthur's brain so they don't have to reproduce the Earth experiment. Needless to say,
Arthur does not want to part with his brain.
Chapter 32-35
- Arthur, Trillian, Zaphod, and Ford escape
- The mice decide to just make up a question
- Cops begin shooting at them as they run away
- The cops suddenly drop dead when their life support systems fail
- They take Slartibart's aircar out of the center of the planet
- When they get to the surface, Marvin the depressed robot reveals that he caused the cop's ship to commit suicide.
This is why the cops died.
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