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Title: Lost Horizon by James Hilton ISBN: 0-671-66427-1 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: October, 1991 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.4 (57 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A wonderful novel of hope and faith.
Comment: When I read this book, I was transformed! I could actually breath the fresh, cold, Himalayan air that Conway and his entourage and the people of Shangri-La breathed. The language the novel is written in is beautiful and picturesque.
When Conway and his companions flee the warring land they come from, (in a way) they find themselves hijacked, whisked away to paradise: Shangri-La, a place where the air is clean and the living is natural and spiritual and, "moderate." Where people live naturally long lives, hundreds of years, in peace, in love, at one with nature. Hilton's book wisely illustrates that some can never be happy in paradise, they must go on and on searching, but too incredulous to ever actually find anything. In Shangri-La the people, the good, natural people await the destruction of the "outside world," which will surely occur at it's own hand sooner or later as long as people rule themselves with war, lack of moderation, hatred, and a lack of regard for the spiritual nature of humanity. Then the people of Shangri-La will spread the paradise to the far reaches of earth. No doubt, James Hilton has read not only the Bible, but many other spiritual books, because I find myself thinking of Buddism, Judaism, Christianity (as opposed to Christendom), Hinduism, and other Eastern religions and forms of spirituality and well as Western religion and forms of spirituality. What an inspiring view.
The "outside" world will eventually destroy itself if humanity continues on the road of "unintelligent leadership," war, hatred, discrimination, excess, selfishness, lack of moderation, lack of respect and care for nature, lack of conservation, lack of respect for self, and lack of respect and care for other human beings and all our fellow animals. The question is: Will there be a "Shangri-La" there to save us? Do we really want to take that chance?
Rating: 5
Summary: A thought provoking classic
Comment: In purchasing books for my sons' from their summer reading lists, I purchased this, for myself, from the high school recommended reading list. My reading is mostly non fiction but occasionally I like to catch up on a classic I should have read years ago. This is such a book. The story is about four individuals' unplanned trip to the mysterious Shangri-La, located in an isolated location in Tibet. Shangri-La is a place where people live stress free and in moderation. This novel, written in 1933, is highly readible and moves quickly. This wistful tale poses many questions such as "is it better to live stress free with time on our hands or to live in the modern world with it's material opportunities?" Another question is "do we believe things based on trust and hope or solely based upon the credible evidence?" A third question might be, "is moderation in a happy, stress free situation better than a world where we feel great passions but also endure periods of unhappiness?" This wonderful tale is a great antidote to the stress of the modern world.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Impossibility of Utopia
Comment: This timeless and visionary novel, while inflicted with some British chauvinism that was common at the time, deserves to be called a classic. Here we have the story of four Westerners who in the 1930s are kidnapped by plane and crash-landed in an uncharted Tibetan valley. They are welcomed into a life of ease and luxury at a suspicious lamasery, Shangri-La, where the monks speak English and enjoy Western books and modern technologies. It turns out that the four abductees were recruited to add to the population of the local village and can never leave, while the lead character Conway is ordained to become the new High Lama. It turns out that this apparent Utopia may not be so fulfilling after all, and that is the key message of the novel. Hilton gives us the struggles of a man who has been damaged by the horrors of war and the modern rat race, and just wants to find a place to get away from it all. But even a place as peaceful as Shangri-La is not so wonderful under the surface. Maybe Utopia is truly impossible to find in our world, both geographically and spiritually.
This novel does have a few problems in characterizations and politics. Other than Conway the characters are shallow and one-sided. The one female among the Westerners, Miss Brinklow, is very narrow and nearly invisible, while the non-Westerners are mostly anonymous. Most importantly, the book comes close to sinking under what could either be called a lack of political correctness or immense British snobbery from Hilton's writing tradition. The High Lama is a European and actually states that "Europeans of the Nordic and Latin races" are the best candidates for enlightenment, while the Tibetans and Chinese in the story are presented as servants or bureaucrats. This is a condescending and unfortunate slight to Buddhism and the traditions of Tibet. Luckily, higher philosophical insights make this novel much bigger than the sum of its parts. [~doomsdayer520~]
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Title:Lost Horizon ASIN: 6305416222 Publisher: Columbia/Tristar Studios Pub. Date: 31 August, 1999 List Price(USD): $27.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $25.16 |
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Title: Random Harvest by James Hilton ISBN: 0786705930 Publisher: Carroll & Graf Pub. Date: December, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Good-Bye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton ISBN: 0316364207 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: August, 1986 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Messenger: A Sequel to Lost Horizon: A Story of Shangri-La by Frank DeMarco ISBN: 1571740139 Publisher: Hampton Roads Pub Co Pub. Date: September, 1994 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Shangri-LA: The Return to the World of Lost Horizon by Eleanor Cooney, Daniel Altieri ISBN: 0688128726 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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