Lost Horizon
Dust jacket for the first edition. | |
| Author | James Hilton |
|---|---|
| Audio read by | Michael de Morgan |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Fiction, novel, adventure, lost world, Utopian and dystopian fiction |
| Set in | The Kunlun Mountains of Tibet, the British Raj, and Berlin |
| Publisher | Macmillan |
Publication date | 1933 / 2010 (audiobook) |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback), Kindle eBook, audiobook |
| Pages | ~160 pp. / 8 hrs and 26 mins |
| ISBN | 978-1840243536 (UK) ISBN 978-0060594527 (US) |
Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by the English writer James Hilton. The book was adapted into a film, also called Lost Horizon, in 1937 by director Frank Capra; and a musical film remake in 1973 by producer Ross Hunter with music by Burt Bacharach. It is the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet.
The novel has a frame story set in Berlin, where a neurologist obtains a manuscript which records the narrative of a British diplomat who had disappeared in China. The main narrative depicted in the manuscript starts in May 1931 within the British Raj. There is a revolution in the country and several people are evacuated. A number of them are transported in a maharaja's aircraft, but the plane is hijacked. After a crash landing, the four surviving passengers are guided to Shangri-La in the Kuen-Lun mountain range.