Lost Horizon
James Hilton
A not entirely forgotten classic
** spoiler alert **
I read James Hilton's Lost Horizon when I was in High School. That was a LONG time ago: the 1970s. Lost Horizon appeared on some list of "classics every college-bound high school student should read". I read these books not because I was concerned about getting into college, but because most of them were very good books. And this certainly was. It became one of my favorites. I liked it enough to read Hilton's Good-Bye, Mr. Chips, which was good, but not as good as Lost Horizon.
Old soldier and current diplomat Hugh Conway flees Afghanistan by plane with a few others. His plane is hijacked and flown into the mountains of Tibet, where it comes down in the hidden valley of Shangri-La. Shangri-La, it transpires, is a kind of paradise. People who live there age only slowly. The head of the lamasery is nearing death and asks Conway to take his place. The book ends with Conway departing Shangri-La.
This probably sounds familiar. The story of someone finding a paradise, then leaving is one of those that gets told over and over. In fact, I was reminded of Lost Horizon by the recent release of Here in Avalon, which has essentially this same classic plot. In high school I also read Mutiny on the Bounty, which surprisingly, struck me very similarly. (In that case paradise is Tahiti.) And I recently read the classic Japanese story of 浦島太郎 - Urashima Tarou -- the old man who is taken to an undersea paradise on the back of a turtle. Elements of this story appear even in Holly Black's Folk of the Air. In the canonical version of this story, the story ends with the hero leaving paradise. Indeed, that is the way that Mutiny on the Bounty, Here in Avalon, Urshima Tarou, and Lost Horizon all end. (The frame story of Lost Horizon suggests that Conway may seek to find his way back to Shangri-La.)
It puzzles me a little that, until I was reminded of it by Here in Avalon, Lost Horizon had virtually vanished from my consciousness. It was a best-seller in its time and two successful movies were based on it. And my judgment as a high school student was that it deserved the accolades. To check this, I just dug up some current lists of books recommended for high school students, and Lost Horizon is not there.
Well, there is an easy explanation for that. The 1970s were a long time ago. Neither Harry Potter nor The Hunger Games existed. If a place was to be found for those and so many others, some books had to drop off the lists. I am not about to go all old-person-shouting-at-clouds about this. I think highly of both Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. If Lost Horizon is the price of pointing students at those books, I won't say it's unjust.
However, if you're looking for a brief (166 pages in kindle) and very good classic novel for your next flight or beach sojourn, Lost Horizon should be on your list of candidates.