Rating: 
Summary: The Impossibility of Utopia
Review: 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~]
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: This book is one of the best I have ever read. There is, between its pages, a world of solace and hope depicted as delicately and expertly as a haiku. The only unfortunate thing about it is that we cannot literally travel to Hilton's Shangri-La.
Rating: 
Summary: Easy reading
Review: A plane is kidnapped and its passengers end up in lamasery in Tibet. The rest is what you may expect: some of the characters want to remain there (after some spiritual insights) and others want to resume their urban lives. The end is open and you have to imagine what happened.
Rating:
Summary: Well written!
Review: Excellent example of moderm escapism, without the modern car chase and unneeded inuendo... Read & reread many, many time, this story, like Shangri-La, never gets old.
Rating:
Summary: This book is off-the-hook!
Review: When the topic of great novels comes up, this book definitely ranks right up there. It is a metaphor for anything that anyone has lost and can't get back; youth, beauty, idealism etc. The only real problem with this story is that you never want it to end!
Rating:
Summary: Found utopia
Review: I have always loved the sort of literature that deals with lost worlds, hidden cities etc. This well-crafted and reflective book is a much more subtle treatment of this theme than people who have only watched the movie version might anticipate. If you like this book, read Hilton's wondeful, 'Goodbye, Mr Chips.' Hilton's clear sentences are still models of good English expression.
Rating: 
Summary: A good adventure story with a twist...
Review: What do you get when you mix a Brit with a Texas Oilman, a London Society female missionary and an Oxfordian highbrow who specializes in whining and negative thinking. Place them in the 1930s, shake well in a stolen aircraft, fly them to an unknown part of the world somewhere in the Himalayan/Tibetian and run them out of fuel. What you get is a bloody good adventure that is written a bit like a Kipling tale. The story begins in India and takes you to Shangri-La, located in the valley of the 'Blue Moon', a place of moderate perfection. For in Shangri-La the cardinal rule is "moderation"- the key to extended life. In this microcosm of moderate perfection you will find a world where aging is retarded significantly and life exists to appreciate the aesthetic. Though the book was published in 1931, the "First Paperback Ever Published," it has an ageless 'Celestine Prophecy' style. Of course it was not the first 'Spiritual Adventure' story written but it was the first to incorporate first world technology (aviation) with spiritual wisdom. Not a romping, gut tingling, adventure tale, it does drag at times, but the ending has a nice twist and there are some adages that bring the read to a pensive pause. "People make mistakes in life by
believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little." Recommended
Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: The story of a group of people who survive an airplane crash in Tibet and find shelter at a mysterious monastery is extremely well known, but unlike most novels, Lost Horizon is less about its characters and their siutation--interesting though those elements may be--than it is about their thoughts and ideas. Written as it was on eve of World War II, these thoughts and ideas center upon developing a way of life that preserves, rather than destroys, that which is finest in both humanity and the world in general. The novel is elegantly and simply written and possesses tremendous atmosphere. Although enjoyable as a purely "fun" read, it is also thought provoking, and the thoughts it provokes linger long after the book is laid aside. I can not imagine any one not being moved by the book, both emotionally and intellectually, regardless of their background or interests. If such a person exists, I do not think I would care to meet them. Although James Hilton wrote a number of worthy novels, Lost Horizon is the novel for which he is best remembered, a great popular success when first published and a genuine masterpiece of 20th Century literature.
Rating:
Summary: Now I know what great writing really is!
Review: I've seen two movie versions of this story that put me to sleep, but after reading only a few pages of this fantastic book, I couldn't put it down. This has truly got to be one of the most beautifully written novels, with the most vivid and gorgeous descriptions, and flawless dialog. If fact, every passage in this book is concisely and neatly written with perfect words. The ideas and philosophies expressed are fathomless and haunting. A genuine "thinking person's" novel. I could go on and on! Really, an absoute MUST read for anyone who loves teriffic storytelling.
Rating:
Summary: Remote classic for readers
Review: This is one of those maddening concept books like "Brave New World" that you should read once in your life, but you're very, very annoyed that it isn't better fleshed-out. "Lost Horizon" is about a group of four people hijacked and flown to a remote, mountain lamasery somewhere in Tibet or China, to the fictional (and now legendary) Shangri-La. The unofficial leader of the four is Conway, a British embassy relations-sort of man. Rather than being outraged, Conway is content in the serene and spiritual surroundings. *** None of the female characters ever develop beyond a paragraph or two, and the scope of the plot only involves arriving at and possibly leaving Shangri-La. *** The prologue and epilogue to the story, however, are very well done and extend the mystery of Shangri-La. Does this place truly exist? Are people able to prolong their lives in spiritual and intellectual enlightenment? Was Conway just spaced out on herbal drugs or perhaps suckered by cult fanatics? *** The book has no final answers. Its main goal is to detach people from the modern sense of time and the often unhappy pursuits we impose on ourselves and each other. But the otherworld retreat of Shangri-La isn't perfect either, and it's more interesting to consider the place from the outside than to be stuck in it.
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