Lost Horizon by james hilton

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Hugh Conway, a veteran of the Great War and a British diplomat, told a novelist friend an incredible story. He and three other people were being evacuated from a rebellion in Baskul when their plane was hijacked and flown to Tibet. After they crash landed in the frigid, windy mountains, their dying pilot told them to go to the lamasery of Shangri-La. The four passengers were guided there by porters and a postulant from the lamasery. After winding through dangerous mountain passes for hours, they arrived at the lamasery overlooking a protected fertile valley. It's a place of peace and contemplation where everyone is satisfied by practicing the ethic of moderation.

The lamasery is also a repository of great books, knowledge, wisdom, culture, and art. The High Lama "foresaw a time when men, excultant in the technique of homicide, would rage so hotly over the world that every precious thing would be in danger...."(144) Conway has never been the same since living through a horrible experience in the Great War, and is drawn to a peaceful, scholarly life in Shangri-La. But another member of his party feels differently and tries to convince Conway that he is losing his mind.

Published in 1933, the book points out how the world is in turmoil and foresees another huge war in the future. The story is a wonderful fantasy set in a beautiful utopia. The epilogue gives hints about what might have happened to Conway, but leaves a lot to the reader's imagination. It left me hoping that Shangri-La is real, hidden and protected by the mountains of Tibet.

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Ayjh

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

One of those books I am so glad to have read. Much to enjoy and some things to chew on along with a layer of humor.

I really enjoyed almost all of it. It was a hard book to wrap up and it shows with the ending. Still a fairly good wrap up with some alluded mystery to it. Although one characters motivation I did not grasp.

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nirasha

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Its starts with a meeting between two friends results into an exchange of a manuscript written by someone who was in a plane that was hijacked and the plane lands somewhere near an utopia.Whats happens in next is the base of the plot.Its a classic and arguably the best work of James Hilton.So,I can't even dare to find a mistake or flaw in the story(though some parts of the story are too long).
However,if somebody is interested in English language,there are many words used in the text that are almost out of use today like funk,quail,etc.If you love classic novels of 20th century,this book is for you.

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Sverkell

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

He foresaw a time when men, exultant in the technique of homicide, would rage so hotly over the world that every precious thing would be in danger, every book and picture and harmony, every treasure garnered through two millenniums, the small, the delicate the defenseless--all would be lost like the lost books of Livy, or wrecked as the English wrecked the Summer Palace in Pekin.

“And you think Shangri-La will escape?”

“Perhaps. We may expect no mercy, but we may faintly hope for neglect. Here we shall stay with our books and our music and our meditations, conserving the frail elegancies of a dying age, and seeking such wisdom as men will need when their passions are all spent. We have a heritage to cherish and bequeath. Let us take what pleasure we may until that time comes.”

-James Hilton, 1933

I'm writing about the Frank Capra film of this fascinating novel and thinking about the time period when it was written. Hilton's strong pacifist message was toned down considerably, but it's evident in the original poster.

Capra made the film as a labor of love, and it was quite popular in its day, although it feels rather ponderous now. I've read some harsh critiques of it:

Capra’s Shangri-La, according to critic Elliot Stein, “is run as a benign dictatorship where Tibetans toil to permit Lamas and guests to contemplate their own white navels. When the High Lama (Belgian) finally gets around to wheezing out his wisdom to his chosen (English) successor, it boils down to this: there would be no bread lines or labor trouble if the planet were one big John Doe Club ruled by a lamaocracy.”

Read the book anyhow. It's very short, and, in its yearning for a place of refuge from the impending war, terribly poignant.

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Josiah-Joestar

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

Four passengers hurriedly boarded a small single engine plane to leave Afghanistan. Two Englishmen, one English woman and an American male were escaping the war as it escalated in the 1930’s. The plane though small, was powerful and was specially built to fly at 25000 ft. and above, though unheard of at the time. The pilot acted mysteriously and flew in a different direction than expected. After refueling in a obscure runway in the desert, the plane headed toward Tibet and the high mountains. Flying into a storm, the plane crashed. As the pilot died, the passengers were told to seek out the lamas of the local lamasery.

If you hear the term Shangri-la, what comes to mind? A beautiful spot on a remote island with your every need taken care of? Or, for you Goodreaders, a library with 30,000 books? How about all the time you need to do anything you want with no deadlines or pressure. Shangri-la is where the passengers ended up, though not on a sunny island, but in the Himalayas.

In fact the author of this book, James Hilton, created the fictional phrase Shangri-la for this story. Lost horizon was the first of 2 books published in 1933 and 1934 that lifted Hilton into a successful career in writing. The second book was Goodbye, Mr. Chips. An Englishman himself, he wrote mostly stories about the times between the 2 World Wars. His creative talent paints pictures of the characters and the scenery where they blend together seamlessly. The storyline brings the reader along as part of this wonderful story.

Highly recommended.

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BansheeGoose

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

I'm reasonably sure that I first read this book at age 13 because my best friend was reading it, so basically a buddy read. I've been meaning to reread it for some time and now, 50 years later, I managed to find a few friends to buddy read with me again. I'm quite convinced that I didn't really understand it as a teen, although I couldn't recall any details.

I found myself comparing Lost Horizon with H. Rider Haggard's She. Both involve Englishmen who stumble into lost civilizations. Of course neither could possibly be run by a local inhabitant—in both cases they are overseen by a mysterious Caucasian. It is difficult to find either civilization but those who are meant to be there are drawn to them. Freaky long life is featured in both instances. (And I wore out our school's copy of She because I loved it so much. The librarian gave me the discarded copy.)

I have to say that the life at Shangri-la didn't appeal to me at all, despite presumably having much more time to tackle my TBR. The older I get, the less happy I am with cold weather, something pretty unavoidable in the Himalayas. I don't think of myself as particularly social, but the limited number of people available would certainly give me pause. It is interesting to me that Shangri-la has become identified as a utopian society, a place to be sought out. It could just as easily be a dystopia. It is also fascinating that real-life expeditions have tried to search for it. Hilton obviously hit a nerve.

I was left with a kind of delicious limbo, wondering if Conway's experience was real or the result of a PTSD fugue state. The neuroscientist who frames the story with prologue and epilogue gives just enough tantalizing details to tease but not to confirm. Being one of those people who love ambiguous endings, this was a good novel for me.

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JaydenC

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

This was part of a book recommendation swap between myself and my brother-in-law. I recommended Ender's Game and he recommended Lost Horizon. I wasn't sure at first if either of us anticipated our tastes in literature very well, but I at least read Lost Horizon with interest.

There is no doubt that it is well written. Hilton is able to tap into the deeper philosophies of life in a non-intrusive yet succinct way that avoids most of the heaviness that accompany philosophical reads. In other words, I found the reading easy, but still deeply meaningful--a great accomplishment that a lot of authors cannot achieve together. In the end, however, I simply wanted some more action. I hoped for it with each turn of the page and even thought I saw how the story could credibly transform into an intense finish, but instead it faded into a rather open-ended, thoughtful conclusion.

I wasn't disappointed by the end, by any means. In fact, once I realized that I had read all the action I was going to get, I succumbed to the mystifying finale with satisfaction. Perhaps, my brother-in-law is experiencing the reverse with his read, wanting less action and more philosophical observations, and will maybe be ultimately foiled in his wish, though not--I hope--disappointed.

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i-animecat-99

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 17,2025

After seeing Frank Capra's film version of this book, I had to read James Hilton's novel. The book and the film are very similar, so my love for the film has transferred to the original work. Lost Horizon is the story of four people, an American, a young British soldier, a middle-aged British man, and a female missionary, who have the misfortune of being kidnapped on an airplane. They are crashed near a mysterious and dismal mountain somewhere in Tibet, and all seems to be lost to them, including their pilot who dies in the crash. However, they are rescued by a group of men who live in a strange valley nearby. They call their oasis Shangri-La.

The middle-aged British man is named Conway; he has the best grasp of the goals of Shangri-La of any of the people in his group. Instead of fidgeting when he is told he and his friends will never leave the villiage, he embraces his new home where everything is done in moderation. He marvels over the expensive library of treasures and begins to love a tiny Chinese girl with a fondness for music. He has the good fortune to meet the High Lama of the monastery there and to be told the secrets of Shangri-La.

Conway's sentiments narrate the story, and his calm personality resonates with the reader and makes the sometimes outlandish beliefs of Shangri-La become vivid and desirable.

This is a magical book with the same feeling of hope and inspiration that is present in Frank Capra's films. Although it was written in the early 30s, the sentiments are applicable in today's world. Thus, it is a timeless classic that every person should have the good fortune of stumbling upon. It will never leave you.

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Lost Horizon

james hilton

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