Arthur Dent is the main character in the story and the first character met by the reader. He is an English man who left the Earth shortly before it was destroyed in the 1980s. Since that time he has been traveling the universe with a companion named Ford Prefect and a variety of other odd characters. Arthur left home wearing his bathrobe and bedroom slippers and still wears them. After living in a cave for several years in prehistoric Earth, he has grown a long and unruly beard.
Arthur is interested in "life, the universe, and everything," a phrase of his own that gives the book its title. In a previous book int he series he has learned that the answer to "life, the universe and everything" is forty-two, but he does not actually know what the question is to which forty-two is the answer.
Arthur escapes his isolation on prehistoric Earth and returns in time to the 1980s, shortly before the Earth is about to be destroyed. He is temporarily comforted by the familiar feeling of home, but is soon off again, traveling through the galaxy. With the help of his friends, he discovers the plan by the super computer Hactar to destroy the universe and becomes an unwitting part of the plan. He realizes his own involvement at the last moment, however, and saves the universe from annihilation.
