Friday, October 12, 1979

Douglas Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Published

Last updated 7/5/2020.

The Hitchiker’s Guide to Galaxy

Douglas Adams

First Publication: October 12, 1979

Category: comic science fiction

Sales: 14 million

Accolades:

About the Book:

“This quotable comedy about a hapless Englishman and his alien friend proved that sci-fi could be clever and funny.” ^TG Originally presented as a radio series on BBC Radio 4, Douglas Adams used “its first four parts as the basis of a novel of the same name. It ended up the first of five books in the comedy science fiction, deliberately-misnamed “trilogy.” ^WK

The novel is “a fictional guide book for hitchhikers inspired by the Hitch-hiker's Guide to Europe, written in the form of an encyclopedia.” ^WK The story focuses on Arthur Dent and “his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher for the revised edition of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy who, for the last fifteen years, has been posing as an out-of-work actor.” ^AZ

Dent is “plucked off the planet” ^AZ “seconds before before Earth is demolished to make way for a galactic freeway.” ^AZ The “dynamic pair began a journey through space aided by a galaxyful of fellow travelers: Zaphod Beeblebrox – the two-headed, three-armed ex-hippie and totally out-to-lunch president of the galaxy; Trillian (formerly Tricia McMillan), Zaphod’s girlfriend, whom Arthur tried to pick up at a cocktail party once upon a time zone; Marvin, a paranoid, brilliant, and chronically depressed robot; and Veet Voojagig, a former graduate student obsessed with the disappearance of all the ballpoint pens he’s bought over the years.” ^AZ

The Washington Post Book World hailed it as “extremely funny…inspired lunacy…[and] over much too soon.” ^AZ Publishers Weekly called it “a whimsical odyssey…Characters frolic through the galaxy with infectious joy.” ^AZ

Resources and Related Links:

In July 2018, I became the organizer of the Classic Novels Book Club. Check out the Book Club tab here or Meetup for more information. This is our August 2019 book.

Sunday, October 7, 1979

William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury published 50 years ago today

First posted 6/9/2020; updated 7/6/2020.

The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner

First Publication: October 7, 1929

Category: gothic fiction

Sales: ?

Accolades:

About the Book:

Faulkner’s fourth novel, The Sound and the Fury, was not successful when initially published in 1929, but started getting critical attention after the publication of Sanctuary in 1931. ^WK In fact, critics came to see it as his masterpiece ^LC and Faulkner himself considered it his favorite. ^LC It has since been embraced as “one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century.” ^AZ In 1950, he was awarded the Nobel Prize and in 1951 he received France’s Legion of Honor. ^LC

The action is “set in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha, Mississippi, as are most of Faulkner’s novels,” ^LC and “uses the American South as a metaphor for a civilization in decline” ^LC in the post-Civil War era. The story “centers on the Compson family, former Southern aristocrats…struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation. Over the course of the 30 years or so related in the novel, the family falls into financial ruin, loses its religious faith and the respect of the town of Jefferson, and many of them die tragically.” ^WK

“The novel is divided into four parts, each told by a different narrator,” ^LC “some of the most memorable characters in literature.” ^AZ It “employs a number of narrative styles, including stream of consciousness,” ^WK“in which a character’s thoughts are conveyed in a manner roughly equivalent to the way human minds actually work.” ^LC

The intellectually-disabled “Benjy” Compson’s section “is characterized by a highly disjointed narrative style with frequent chronological leaps.” ^WK “The haunted, neurotic Quentin,” ^AZ Benjy’s older brother, and the events leading up to his suicide are the focus of section two. The third section is told from “the point of view of Jason, Quentin’s cynical younger brother.” ^WK “The last section primarily focuses on Dilsey, one of the Compsons’ black servants” ^WK and is told from “a third person omniscient point of view.” ^WK