''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' is a 1988 humorous fantasy
detective
A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...
novel by
Douglas Adams
Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 BBC radio comedy, ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' developed into a " ...
. It is the second book by Adams featuring
private detective
A private investigator (often abbreviated to PI and informally called a private eye), a private detective, or inquiry agent is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private investigators of ...
Dirk Gently
Dirk Gently (born Svlad Cjelli, also known as Dirk Cjelli) is a fictional character created by English writer Douglas Adams and featured in the books ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'', ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' and ''The ...
, the first being ''
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency
''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' is a humorous detective novel by English writer Douglas Adams, published in 1987. It is described by the author on its cover as a "thumping good detective-ghost-horror-who dunnit-time travel-romantic- ...
''. Adams had intended to follow it with a third such novel, ''The Salmon of Doubt'', but he died before completing it; an unfinished draft is included in
a posthumously published collection of the same name.
''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'' has been
adapted for radio, and several plot lines appear in the
2010 BBC TV series.
Title
The title is a phrase that appeared in Adams' novel ''
Life, the Universe and Everything
''Life, the Universe and Everything'' (1982, ) is the third book in the six-volume ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' science fiction "trilogy of five books" by British writer Douglas Adams. The title refers to the Answer to Life, the Unive ...
'' to describe the wretched boredom of immortal being
Wowbagger
This page is a list of characters in ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'', by Douglas Adams. The descriptions of the characters are accompanied by information on details about appearances and references to the characters.
Main characters
...
, the Infinitely Prolonged, and is a play on the theological treatise ''
Dark Night of the Soul
''Dark Night of the Soul'' ( es, La noche oscura del alma) is a poem written by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross. The author himself did not give any title to his poem, on which he wrote two book-length commentari ...
'', by
Saint John of the Cross
John of the Cross, OCD ( es, link=no, Juan de la Cruz; la, Ioannes a Cruce; born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez; 24 June 1542 – 14 December 1591) was a Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and a Carmelite friar of converso origin. He is a major figu ...
.
The novel is named for that time on a Sunday, after afternoon but before evening, as the weekend had finished but the week had not yet begun, that occurred to Adams as a listless limbo of the working man:
Plot summary
While trying to purchase an airline ticket to
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
at
Heathrow Airport
Heathrow Airport (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others be ...
, American journalist Kate Schechter finds herself in line behind a large blond man who also wants to get on the flight but has no identification or means to pay. The check-in counter is suddenly consumed by fire, and both Kate and the man are taken to a hospital with injuries. The man is later removed from the hospital, along with his short-handled
sledgehammer
A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed t ...
and a
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...
vending machine, and Kate checks herself out in order to find where he has gone.
Meanwhile, "
holistic
Holism () is the idea that various systems (e.g. physical, biological, social) should be viewed as wholes, not merely as a collection of parts. The term "holism" was coined by Jan Smuts in his 1926 book ''Holism and Evolution''."holism, n." OED Onl ...
" detective Dirk Gently wakes up several hours late for a meeting with songwriter Geoffrey Anstey, a new client. Anstey had engaged Dirk to protect him from a green-eyed giant armed with a scythe, saying that it had to do with a contract he had signed. When Dirk arrives at Anstey's home, he finds the man's body in a chair and his head on a record turntable. Searching the home, he discovers an envelope marked with several names, all of which are crossed out except for Anstey's, and gets his nose broken by Anstey's son while trying to question him. The boy is watching a television news broadcast on the Heathrow incident, which mentions that a check-in clerk has gone missing; Dirk recognises her as his former secretary.
At the private Woodshead Hospital, which caters to wealthy patients with bizarre medical afflictions, a one-eyed old man is removed and put into a van for transport to a new location during a visit by Kate. While following the van, she has a chance encounter with Dirk, who takes particular interest in her mention of a short man she saw accompanying the old patient.
Returning to her home, Kate finds the blond man - actually the
Norse god
Thor
Thor (; from non, Þórr ) is a prominent god in Germanic paganism. In Norse mythology, he is a hammer-wielding æsir, god associated with lightning, thunder, storms, sacred trees and groves in Germanic paganism and mythology, sacred groves ...
- waiting for her and in need of first aid after being glued to a wooden floor and attacked by a hostile eagle. The old patient is his father
Odin
Odin (; from non, Óðinn, ) is a widely revered Æsir, god in Germanic paganism. Norse mythology, the source of most surviving information about him, associates him with wisdom, healing, death, royalty, the gallows, knowledge, war, battle, v ...
, against whom he has a long-standing grudge over being repeatedly punished for losing his temper, and the short man is Odin's goblin-like assistant Toe Rag. The eagle eventually departs and makes its way into Dirk's home, trying repeatedly to attack him as he examines the document he found in Anstey's home.
The formatting of the document suggests to Dirk that it is not a contract, but rather a bill for services rendered, even though he cannot read the language. He discovers that the homeless persons sleeping in and around the
St Pancras railway station
St Pancras railway station (), also known as London St Pancras or St Pancras International and officially since 2007 as London St Pancras International, is a central London railway terminus on Euston Road in the London Borough of Camden. It is ...
are actually Norse gods whose status has declined drastically over the centuries, due to mortals' reduced need for them. He follows them into
Valhalla
In Norse mythology Valhalla (;) is the anglicised name for non, Valhǫll ("hall of the slain").Orchard (1997:171–172) It is described as a majestic hall located in Asgard and presided over by the god Odin. Half of those who die in combat e ...
, where Thor has issued a challenge to Odin but failed to show up. The challenge concerns the sale of Odin's powers to a married couple, lawyer Clive Draycott and his advertising-executive wife Cynthia, who are also in attendance. Unable to support himself in the modern world, Odin had sold his powers to finance his admission to Woodshead, where he could live in comfort. The Draycotts in turn re-sold portions of that power to other parties, but Toe Rag became involved and tried to bill them for his time. The bill was passed from one buyer to another, finally reaching Anstey, and Toe Rag had him killed by the scythe-carrying giant when the payment deadline came.
Thor takes Kate to Valhalla, but all the other gods have departed and he ends up facing Odin alone. Angry over not being able to reach him by flying to Oslo, Thor had lost control of his powers, transforming a fighter jet into the eagle that harassed both Thor and Dirk, destroying the Heathrow check-in counter, and turning its clerk into the Coca-Cola machine. Thor undoes these changes to prove that he has his temper under control, but finds himself at a loss as to how to settle his disagreement with Odin. At Kate's suggestion, Odin turns his entire estate over to Woodshead and is admitted as a patient for the rest of his life. The Draycotts are killed when the restored fighter jet bursts out of Dirk's home and crashes into their car.
A sub-plot involves Dirk's kitchen
refrigerator
A refrigerator, colloquially fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump (mechanical, electronic or chemical) that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so th ...
, which has become so filthy that he and his cleaning lady have started trying to trick one another into opening it first. He buys a new one from a
fence
A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length.
...
and has the old one hauled away. A new god ultimately bursts out of it, created from Dirk's guilt over failing to prevent Anstey's death.
Adaptations
A
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
was broadcast in October 2008.
in the title role in a pilot broadcast on BBC 4 in 2010 and a three-episode series broadcast in 2012. The series includes several plot lines from ''The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul'', including Dirk's Zen navigation, his psychological battle with his cleaning lady, and a horoscope that is aimed at him personally by the compiler.