A Literary Analysis Of Douglas Adams Style

Douglas Adams’ Style

Author Douglas Adams is often praised as one of England’s strongest comedic writers, even described as the literary equivalent of Monty Python by critics. In two of his novels, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, Adams utilizes a very irreverent and enjoyable style in composing his stories. Three distinct components that are prominent in his works are characterization, figurative language (specifically understatement), and

One effective component is the use of characterization to show the reader how a character is constructed. An example of Adams’ direct characterization would be Mr. L. Prosser’s introduction in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

“More specifically he was a forty, fat and shabby and worked for the local council.

Curiously enough, though he did not know it, he was also a direct male-line descendant of

Genghis Khan, through intervening generations and racial mixing had so juggled his genes

This nearly paragraph-long sentence describing Mr. Prosser perfectly conveys a lot of information about where he is from and his character via narration. Actions of characters are also noted in Chicago tribune's review of The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul by Jess Bravin. When forming a synopsis of the book, Bravin states, “As the contract was set to expire at 7 a.m., Anstey had insisted that Dirk arrive at 6:30. [...] When Dirk, a habitual oversleeper, shows up at Anstey`s house five hours late, he finds his client decapitated in an especially gruesome way.” Dirk Gently, the detective in the novel, is shown to be extremely lazy, and his actions reveal him to be very unmotivated in his first introduction, as well as the consequences and effects they have on