History Literature / LostHorizon

* HurtingHero: Conway, the protagonist, saw very disturbing stuff during his service in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, and he never got quite over it.

* One of the most famous examples of this trope, Conway is an unhappy British officer who seeks something more, and he gets to move to the utopian Shangri-La and finally find some peace. However, he is counteracted by his friend who hates it and wants to go back.

* LiteraryAgentHypothesis: The book is written by someone who heard the story from Conrad.

The novel ''Lost Horizon'' was written in 1933 by British author James Hilton (of ''[[Film/GoodbyeMrChips Goodbye, Mr. Chips]]'' fame).

* HurtingHero: Conway, the protagonist, saw very disturbing stuff during his service in World War I, and he never got quite over it.

* HiddenElfVillage: Shangri-La.
* HurtingHero: Conway, the protagonist.

* MacGuffinLocation

* NoImmortalInertia

* RapidAging: This may be Lo-Tsen's fate.

* TheShangriLa: The novel is the trope namer.

%%ZCE * HiddenElfVillage: Shangri-La.
%%ZCE * HurtingHero: Conway, the protagonist.

%% ZCE * MacGuffinLocation

%% ZCE * NoImmortalInertia
%%ZCE * OrganizationWithUnlimitedFunding: The monastery.
%%ZCE * RapidAging: This may be Lo-Tsen's fate.

%%ZCE * TheShangriLa: The novel is the trope namer.

* HiddenElfVillage: Shangri-La.
* HurtingHero: Conway, the protagonist.

* OrganizationWithUnlimitedFunding: The monastery.
* RapidAging: This may be Lo-Tsen's fate.

* TheShangriLa: The novel is the trope namer.

Passengers aboard a small airplane discover that they have been kidnapped by someone posing as their assigned pilot. The plane crashes in the Himalayan mountain range along the border of China. The dying pilot's last words indicate there is a lamasery near by at Shangi-La and they will find help there. The passengers go to the lamasery and uncover a mystery.

* {{Aesop}}: The novel warns of an impending World War.
* BilingualBonus: "Shangri-la" means "Shang Mountain Pass" in Tibetan.

* HiddenElfVillage: Shangri-La
* HurtingHero: Conway the protagonist

* MacGuffinLocation

* NoImmortalInertia
* OrganizationWithUnlimitedFunding: the monastery
* RapidAging: this may be Lo-Tsen's fate
* SecretIdentity: Barnard is really Chalmers Bryant and the High Lama might really be Father Perrault

* AgeWithoutYouth: Averted- you live long and age proportionaly in Shangri-La.

* TheRedStapler: Shangri-La and what it represents — longing for a faraway place of beauty, spiritual replenishment, and supernatural longevity — stuck around. When Tibet realized that heavy logging of their old-growth forests was causing disastrous floods, they turned to tourism, found that it paid really well, and renovated a village, renaming it Shangri-La.

* ShamgriLa: The novel is the trope namer.

* MayDecemberRomance: Mallinson and Lo-Tsen... if Perrault [[spoiler: is telling the truth of course.]]
* MightyWhitey: Featuring a modern MightyWhitey in the 1930s, when the old-fashioned version was still in vogue. The mostly Chinese and Tibetan monks there prove themselves to be wise, intelligent, competent, and well-rounded characters. However, the white Conway turns out to be better at being a monk than the best of the Tibetans, and it turns out that [[spoiler:the founder and leader of the monastery is a European who arrived in the 15th century]].

* OrganizationWithUnlimitedFunding: [[spoiler: the monastery]]
* RapidAging: [[spoiler: this may be Lo-Tsen's fate]]
* SecretIdentity: [[spoiler: Barnard is really Chalmers Bryant]] and [[spoiler: the High Lama might really be Father Perrault]]

* UnreliableNarrator: Mallinson points out to Conway (and the reader) that [[spoiler: the High Lama]] might be just lying.

* AsianGalWithWhiteGuy: Lo-Tsen with Mallinson.

The novel ''Lost Horizon'' was written in 1933 by British author James Hilton (of ''GoodbyeMrChips'' fame).

* SecretIdentity: [[spoiler: Barnard is really Chalmers Bryant]] and [[spoiler: the High Lama is really Father Perrault]]

* UnreliableNarrator: Mallinson points out the possibility to Conway (and even to the reader) that [[spoiler: Perrault]] might be just lying.

The novel ''LostHorizon'' was written in 1933 by British author James Hilton (of ''GoodbyeMrChips'' fame).

[[quoteright:280:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Lost_Horizon_1124.png]]

The novel ''LostHorizon'' was written in 1933 by British author James Hilton of GoodbyeMrChips fame. It was filmed by FrankCapra in 1937, and again in 1973 as a spectacular star-studded musical flop.

* TheChosenOne: In both the film and the book, Conway was specially selected to go to Shangri-La, and the other passengers were considered wonderful, accidental additions to the lamasery who all (excepting Mallinson) found reasons to be happy there.
* DevelopmentHell: More like post-production Hell for the film. The production went swimmingly but it turned out to be six hours long. Eventually it was cut down to feature-length after several test screenings.

* MightyWhitey: Featuring a modern MightyWhitey in the 1930s, when the old-fashioned version was still in vogue. The mostly Chinese and Tibetan monks there prove themselves to be wise, intelligent, competent, and well-rounded characters. However, the white Conway turns out to be better at being a monk than the best of the Tibetans, and it turns out that [[spoiler: the founder and leader of the monastery is a European who arrived in the 15th century]].
* MissingEpisode: The 1937 film had a running time of 132 minutes in its first release. When restored in 1973, only 125 minutes of film could be found, but they did have the entire soundtrack. The restored version shows publicity photos and stills in place of the missing film elements.

* StockFootage: Shots of the plane flying over the Himalayas in the 1973 version were later used for the TravelMontage in ''[[IndianaJones Raiders Of The Lost Ark]]''.
** The 1937 film also borrowed a few shots of snowy mountain peaks from a documentary to make it more realistic.
* {{Utopia}}: Shangri-La

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