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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
An interesting read-4 people hijacked and end up in Shangri-La where they are pretty much stuck due to extreme conditions. I felt the ending was rushed and would be interested to read the stories of the other 3 people as this book focused on Conway's point of view.
"While attempting to escape a civil war, four people are kidnapped and transported to the Tibetan mountains. After their plane crashes, they are found by a mysterious Chinese man. He leads them to a monastery hidden in "the valley of the blue moon" -- a land of mystery and matchless beauty where life is lived in tranquil wonder, beyond the grasp of a doomed world. It is here, in Shangri-La, where destinies will be discovered and the meaning of paradise will be unveiled."
"While attempting to escape a civil war, four people are kidnapped and transported to the Tibetan mountains. After their plane crashes, they are found by a mysterious Chinese man. He leads them to a monastery hidden in "the valley of the blue moon" -- a land of mystery and matchless beauty where life is lived in tranquil wonder, beyond the grasp of a doomed world. It is here, in Shangri-La, where destinies will be discovered and the meaning of paradise will be unveiled."
adventurous
mysterious
relaxing
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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.
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.
I stumbled on this book because I've seen so many places named "Shangri-la" in Asia.
The books is a good fast read and talks about a very interesting an mythical subject. It has very good descriptions of a place you want to believe in. I liked the way the rhythm of the story slows down or accelerate depending on what's happening. I know that this is an old book but I couldn't help to find it sexist and racist at some point. I was also disappointed that this extraordinary Tibetan place was run by white people :(
Still, a very good book for anyone who likes adventure and is appealed by the Tibetan mysteries.
The books is a good fast read and talks about a very interesting an mythical subject. It has very good descriptions of a place you want to believe in. I liked the way the rhythm of the story slows down or accelerate depending on what's happening. I know that this is an old book but I couldn't help to find it sexist and racist at some point. I was also disappointed that this extraordinary Tibetan place was run by white people :(
Still, a very good book for anyone who likes adventure and is appealed by the Tibetan mysteries.
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A plane crashes on the doorstep of a monastery in Tibet, named Shangri-La. Only this isn't just a random plane crash. This was a kidnapping with a definite purpose. Can the survivors escape? Assuming they want to?
I had, of course, come across references to Shangri-La, and had some vague idea that it was a utopian society hidden inside the Tibetan mountains. I didn't realise it was based on this novel, so I'm thrilled to finally read the origins of the "legend".
The novel was written after World War 1, but could be just as relevant today. According to the High Lama of Shangri-La, there will be a huge disaster than will plunge the World into a Dark Age. Shangri-La and its denizens would be there to keep alive the flame of culture and civilization. At the time this novel was published, Hitler was rising to power and the Japanese had already bombed Shanghai. Today we have the possibility of a future World War III, nuclear fallout, pandemics, environmental catastrophe etc. I'm hoping there is some sort of Shangri-La somewhere, keeping the good stuff alive.
The novel isn't written in a Jules Verne style, but it has a bit of Jules Verne flavour, in terms of the exploration of a new place (Lost Horizon is a bit tame on this front, no hidden cities or strange civilizations), also in terms of the small, group of isolated people who aren't thrilled with returning to society, and the mad dash for escape (though rather half-baked in this case). The novel is a bit simplistic and I would have like more details... about a lot of things. But then again, there is only so much you can tell in a 24 hour ramble (this is a story within a story).
I took this up during a stretch when I needed an "exciting yarn" (as the New Yorker blurb on my edition puts it) to hold my attention, & out of a curiosity regarding what made this such a sensation in the 1930's, prompting it to be published in the format that became known as the mass market paperback.
It's not at all the novel I was expecting—which ended up interesting me more than the story itself. From my cultural awareness of the term "Shangri-La" I figured this would be an adventure tale, which I suppose it is in its outline, but not really in execution. Essentially it's a series of endless conversations situated in a series of increasingly exotic backdrops. Hilton does give these debates, which sometimes stretch to entire chapters, a momentum that make them feel more exciting than the content itself would seem to provide which is a credit to his talent as a writer. But honestly I just became utterly fascinated that such a heady, philosophically-driven novel found such a widespread readership & enduring place in the cultural imagination. I have such a hard time imagining something equivalent occurring in our present era!
I've never seen Capra's famous film adaptation, but looking forward to catching up with it now.
Conway gave a shrug. "Perhaps the exhaustion of passion is the beginning of wisdom, if you care to alter the proverb."
"That also, my son, is the doctrine of Shangri-La."
"I know. It makes me feel quite at home."
It's not at all the novel I was expecting—which ended up interesting me more than the story itself. From my cultural awareness of the term "Shangri-La" I figured this would be an adventure tale, which I suppose it is in its outline, but not really in execution. Essentially it's a series of endless conversations situated in a series of increasingly exotic backdrops. Hilton does give these debates, which sometimes stretch to entire chapters, a momentum that make them feel more exciting than the content itself would seem to provide which is a credit to his talent as a writer. But honestly I just became utterly fascinated that such a heady, philosophically-driven novel found such a widespread readership & enduring place in the cultural imagination. I have such a hard time imagining something equivalent occurring in our present era!
I've never seen Capra's famous film adaptation, but looking forward to catching up with it now.
Conway gave a shrug. "Perhaps the exhaustion of passion is the beginning of wisdom, if you care to alter the proverb."
"That also, my son, is the doctrine of Shangri-La."
"I know. It makes me feel quite at home."
adventurous
reflective
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The whole book is absolutely thronging with an ache that never quite gets addressed directly, but is palpable nonetheless - the immense collective trauma of the first world war. No-one really knew how to deal with all that grief, and neither do Lost Horizon's characters, and it really is incredibly moving to watch them quietly try and deal with it all through mysticism and the opportunity to just stay in this isolated paradise, because who would want to return to a world that horrible?
Tibet is always a win for me as a setting, and it's super short, too, so a good go-to if you just need a bit of a cathartic sob (✨️it's fine, everything's fine✨️)
Love it to bits :)
Tibet is always a win for me as a setting, and it's super short, too, so a good go-to if you just need a bit of a cathartic sob (✨️it's fine, everything's fine✨️)
Love it to bits :)
Content Warnings
Minor: Colonisation, War
What a wonderful book! In a way it reminded me of the Maltese Falcon but I'm not sure why...
This book is a superb, mesmerizing, haunting tale that hovers somewhere between historical fiction and philosophy, between religious yearning and parboiled adventure. It’s an elegant lament for peace amidst the destructive forces of modern life on this planet, where the war drums of mad men beat without end.
At the outset it’s a story of a British diplomat who, along with a mysterious American, a British nun, and a junior British diplomat are hijacked by an unknown pilot impersonating an Air Force man in India at the sunset of the British empire. They are flown over the high mountains of Tibet and land on the outskirts of a massive, barren plain in some remote high mountain range.
They are met by a coterie of Tibetans led by a Chinese man named Chang who leads them to a lamasery (a monastery) at the foot of the most beautiful mountain any of them have ever seen. Slowly their host drips information to them about where they are, the identity of their hosts, and how they might return home. The hospitality is superb. But the answers don’t come quickly—especially for the junior diplomat. Days turn into weeks as they wonder about their fate in this most curious place.
The protagonist, the senior diplomat, is a youngish veteran of World War I named Conway who possesses a raft of admirable personality traits of untapped leadership—hard won from his days as a soldier in the Great War. Consequently, he possesses a wise, detached, unruffled malaise that brings him under the wing of the high llama, an extremely mysterious and impossibly aged man. Their encounters are reminiscent of the Buddha and his students. He has singled out Conway from his colleagues for some special, unknown role in this place.
When finally an opportunity to escape arrives the young British officer Mallinson takes his chance. I will leave it to the reader to discover what happens with him, Conway, and the others.
But on a deeper level, what happens in this book is a series of fluid, poetic contemplations of the meaning of life that are not overwrought but nonetheless arresting. And though certainly there is a metaphor here about war and peace and what its unending horrors do to the souls of mankind, there lingers a feeling of hope for what we may become—individually and collectively. How can we conquer the demons that keep us from our own highest destiny?
I was completely taken by Hilton’s prose in this book. From another age—an age of politeness, formality and of delicate, intricate, and creative description, absent of all vulgarity, and with an expressiveness that is hard to find in our modern age. I found myself wondering about the things that Conway wondered. I found myself wondering about what we are all meant to become. It was just a mesmerizing piece of fiction that I am thrilled to have encountered. A combination of adventure storytelling between the great world wars and philosophical meanderings that put me in a happy mood of contemplation and curious thoughts about how one could write such a compelling story and how I could discover it 85 years after it was published. Just marvelous. I do not often give five stars for books but this tale is completely deserving. Enjoy.
At the outset it’s a story of a British diplomat who, along with a mysterious American, a British nun, and a junior British diplomat are hijacked by an unknown pilot impersonating an Air Force man in India at the sunset of the British empire. They are flown over the high mountains of Tibet and land on the outskirts of a massive, barren plain in some remote high mountain range.
They are met by a coterie of Tibetans led by a Chinese man named Chang who leads them to a lamasery (a monastery) at the foot of the most beautiful mountain any of them have ever seen. Slowly their host drips information to them about where they are, the identity of their hosts, and how they might return home. The hospitality is superb. But the answers don’t come quickly—especially for the junior diplomat. Days turn into weeks as they wonder about their fate in this most curious place.
The protagonist, the senior diplomat, is a youngish veteran of World War I named Conway who possesses a raft of admirable personality traits of untapped leadership—hard won from his days as a soldier in the Great War. Consequently, he possesses a wise, detached, unruffled malaise that brings him under the wing of the high llama, an extremely mysterious and impossibly aged man. Their encounters are reminiscent of the Buddha and his students. He has singled out Conway from his colleagues for some special, unknown role in this place.
When finally an opportunity to escape arrives the young British officer Mallinson takes his chance. I will leave it to the reader to discover what happens with him, Conway, and the others.
But on a deeper level, what happens in this book is a series of fluid, poetic contemplations of the meaning of life that are not overwrought but nonetheless arresting. And though certainly there is a metaphor here about war and peace and what its unending horrors do to the souls of mankind, there lingers a feeling of hope for what we may become—individually and collectively. How can we conquer the demons that keep us from our own highest destiny?
I was completely taken by Hilton’s prose in this book. From another age—an age of politeness, formality and of delicate, intricate, and creative description, absent of all vulgarity, and with an expressiveness that is hard to find in our modern age. I found myself wondering about the things that Conway wondered. I found myself wondering about what we are all meant to become. It was just a mesmerizing piece of fiction that I am thrilled to have encountered. A combination of adventure storytelling between the great world wars and philosophical meanderings that put me in a happy mood of contemplation and curious thoughts about how one could write such a compelling story and how I could discover it 85 years after it was published. Just marvelous. I do not often give five stars for books but this tale is completely deserving. Enjoy.