Lost Horizon in Around the World in 80 Books

Jun 21, 2016 Steve rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy, fiction

Not the best book I've read, but certainly one of the more magical ones. It does cast a spell. I was a bit surprised at the WW I element in "Lost Horizon." Hugh Conway, the emotionally damaged hero of the novel, is a part of the Lost Generation. Hilton's turning his Valley of the Blue Moon into a kind of post-War Brigadoon is a brilliant one, especially since he sandwiches events between the known war and the worse one Hilton foresees as coming. I'm sure others in 1933, when the novel was publis ...more

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Aug 30, 2023 Nina ( picturetalk321 ) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: author-white, 4-star, author-man, a-reviewed, europe-uk, z-read-gelesen-2023, gorgeous-cover, publdate-1930s, genre-adventure, landscape-mountains

An absorbing, deliciously well-written adventure yarn. A bit fantasy, a bit travel orientalism, a lot 1930s Britishness, complete with stereotypical prim but feisty missionary woman, derring-do hot-headed youngster ready to fight patriotically and American with a dubious financial past. The main character, though, is thoroughly unconventional and I liked him A Lot. He is not hoorah-patriotic, no yahoo-macho, full of interesting contradictions and softnesses. The remote Himalayan setting was just ...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Pam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, 5-star-favorites, classics, asian

This is the tale of Shangri-La. Four Westerners get kidnapped and are flown to a remote area of Tibet. What they find is Shangri-La. We think of Shangri-La as a synonym for paradise. This is where it all started. I have heard it said that this book wasn't often read anymore. That is a pity. It is an imaginative adventure tale. I will remember this book, think about it often, and yes, while it is not moralistic, I have learned much from it. An excellent tale. ...more

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Apr 24, 2017 Andy Plonka rated it it was amazing

It is interesting how authors before 1950 could write a thought provoking book in less than 300 pages and today it takes at least that many to say less. This book exemplifies that thought.

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