Line #19 Literature/LostHorizon


1	[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lost_horizon_250.jpg]]
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3	The novel ''Lost Horizon'' was written in 1933 by British author James Hilton (of ''Literature/GoodbyeMrChips'' fame).
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5	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 nearby at Shangri-La and they will find help there. The passengers go to the lamasery and are offered shelter there. Then mysteries start to unfold: the passengers want to leave but but are unable to, and it becomes clear that time passes differently here.
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7	It was [[Film/LostHorizon filmed by Frank Capra in 1937]], and again in 1973 as a spectacular star-studded musical flop.
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9	Not to be confused with the power metal band with the same name.
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11	----
12	!!This novel provides examples of:
13	* AdaptationNameChange: The book's Hugh Conway became Robert Conway in the 1937 film and Richard Conway in the 1973 film.
14	* {{Aesop}}: The novel warns of an impending World War [[note]]And it was written in between WW-I and WW-II in Real Life...[[/note]].
15	* BigTownBoredom: 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.
16	* BilingualBonus: "Shangri-La" means "Shang Mountain Pass" in Tibetan.
17	* TheChosenOne: 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.
18	* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The story ends with Mallinson and Lo-Tsen (probably) dead and Conway desperately trying to return.]]
19	* FramingDevice: The main story is being told among two former schoolmates of Conway, one of whom got his story from Conway himself.
20	* HiddenElfVillage: Shangri-La is a deliberately inaccessible place where carefully selected candidates are expected to isolate themselves from a world without hope.
21	* InterfaithSmoothie: According to the High Lama, the lamasery was originally Buddhist, then Father Perrault converted it to Christianity, but in his later years he embraced not only Buddhism but some elements of Hinduism as well.
22	* MacGuffinLocation: Shangri-La
23	* MayDecemberRomance: Mallinson and Lo-Tsen... if Perrault is telling the truth of course.
24	* 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 the founder and leader of the monastery is a European who arrived in the 15th century.
25	* NoImmortalInertia: It is heavily implied that [[spoiler: Lo-Tsen lost her youth almost as soon as she left Shangri-La]].
26	* OrganizationWithUnlimitedFunding: The monastery.
27	* RapidAging: This may be Lo-Tsen's fate as explained in NoImmortalInertia.
28	* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: The inhabitants of Shangri-La age at a much slower rate than usual, but are not truly immortal.
29	* SecretIdentity: Barnard is really Chalmers Bryant and the High Lama might really be [[spoiler:Father Perrault]].
30	* TheShangriLa: The novel is the trope namer, due to Conway's efforts to get back at any price.
31	* UncertainDoom: [[spoiler: It is unknown what happened to Mallinson after the end of Rutherford's manuscript but it probably wasn't good.]]
32	* UnreliableNarrator: Mallinson points out to Conway (and the reader) that the High Lama might be just lying.
33	* {{Utopia}}: Shangri-La appears to be a genuine example.
34	* WhamLine:
35	-->'''Conway:''' "THAT YOU ARE STILL ALIVE, FATHER PERRAULT."
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Context Literature / LostHorizon