Lost Horizon is a 1933 novel by English writer James Hilton. The book was turned into a film, also called Lost Horizon, in 1937 by director Frank Capra and a lavish musical remake in 1973 by producer Ross Hunter with music by Burt Bacharach.  It is best remembered as the origin of Shangri-La, a fictional utopian lamasery located high in the mountains of Tibet.

Plot
The prologue and epilogue are narrated by a neurologist. This neurologist and a novelist friend, Rutherford, are given dinner at Tempelhof, Berlin, by their old school-friend Wyland, a secretary at the British embassy. A chance remark by a passing airman brings up the topic of Hugh Conway, a British consul in Afghanistan, who disappeared under odd circumstances. Later in the evening, Rutherford reveals to the neurologist that, after the disappearance, he discovered Conway in a French mission hospital in Chung-Kiang (probably Chongqing), China, suffering from amnesia. Conway recovered his memory, told Rutherford his story (which Rutherford recorded in a manuscript), and then slipped away again.

Rutherford gives the neurologist his manuscript, which becomes the heart of the novel.

In May 1931, during the British Raj in India, the 80 white residents of Baskul are being evacuated to Peshawar due to revolution. In the aeroplane of the Maharajah of Chandrapore are: Conway, the British consul, aged 37; Mallinson, his young vice-consul; an American, Barnard; and a British missionary, Miss Brinklow. The plane is hijacked and flown instead over the mountains to Tibet. After a crash landing, the pilot dies, but not before telling the four (in Chinese, which only Conway speaks) to seek shelter at the nearby lamasery of Shangri-La. The location is unclear, but Conway believes the plane has "progressed far beyond the western range of the Himalayas" towards the less known heights of the Kuen-Lun mountain range.

The four are taken there by a party directed by Chang, a postulant at the lamasery who speaks English. The lamasery has modern conveniences, like central heating, bathtubs from Akron, Ohio, a large library, a grand piano, a harpsichord, and food from the fertile valley below. Towering above is Karakal, literally translated as "Blue Moon," a mountain more than 28,000 feet high. Mallinson is keen to hire porters and leave, but Chang politely puts him off. The others eventually decide they are content to stay: Miss Brinklow because she wants to teach the people a sense of sin; Barnard because he is really Chalmers Bryant (wanted by the police for stock fraud) and because he is keen to develop the gold mines in the valley; and Conway because the contemplative scholarly life suits him.

A seemingly young Manchu woman, Lo-Tsen, is another postulant at the lamasery. She does not speak English, but plays the harpsichord. Mallinson falls in love with her, as does Conway, though more languidly. Conway is given an audience with the High Lama, an unheard-of honor. He learns that the lamasery was constructed in its present form by a Catholic monk named Perrault from Luxembourg, in the early eighteenth century. The lamasery has since then been joined by others who have found their way into the valley. Once they have done so, their aging slows; if they then leave the valley, they age quickly and die. Conway guesses correctly that the High Lama is Perrault, now 250 years old.

In a later audience, the High Lama reveals that he is finally dying, and that he wants Conway to lead the lamasery. The High Lama then dies. Conway contemplates the events.

Hours after the High Lama dies, Conway is outside still pondering the events while in the moonlight. Mallinson then grabs him by the arm and tells Conway he has arranged to leave the valley with porters and Lo-Tsen. Barnard and Brinklow have decided to stay. The porters and Lo-Tsen are waiting for him five kilometers outside the valley, but he cannot traverse the dangerous route alone, so he convinces Conway to go along and assist him. Conway is caught, divided between the two worlds. Ultimately, because of his love for the boy, he decides to join Mallinson. This ends Rutherford's manuscript.

The last time Rutherford saw Conway, it appeared he was preparing to make his way back to Shangri-La. Rutherford completes his account by telling the neurologist that he attempted to track Conway and verify some of his claims of Shangri-La. He found the Chung-Kiang doctor who had treated Conway. The doctor said Conway had been brought in by a Chinese woman, who was ill and died soon after. She was old, the doctor had told Rutherford, "Most old of anyone I have ever seen," implying that it was Lo-Tsen, aged drastically by her departure from Shangri-La.  The narrator wonders whether Conway can find his way back to his lost paradise.

Reception and legacy 

The book, published in 1933, caught the notice of the public only after Hilton's Goodbye, Mr. Chips was published in 1934. Lost Horizon became a huge popular success and in 1939 was published in paperback form, as Pocket Book #1, making it the first "mass-market" paperback.

By the 1960s, Pocket Books alone, over the course of more than 40 printings, had sold several million copies of Lost Horizon, helping to make it one of the most popular novels of the 20th Century.

United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt named the Presidential hideaway in Maryland, now called Camp David, after Shangri-La. In 1942, to ensure the safety of returning U.S. forces, Roosevelt answered a reporter's question about the origin of the Doolittle Raid by saying it had been launched from "Shangri-La". The true details of the raid were revealed to the public a year later. This inspired the naming of the  USS Shangri-La (CV-38), commissioned in 1944.

Lost Horizons concept of Shangri-La has gone on to influence other quasi-Asian mystical locations in fiction including Marvel Comics' K'un L'un and DC Comics' Nanda Parbat.

Adaptations

Films
The book has been adapted for film three times:
 Lost Horizon (1937), directed by Frank Capra
 Lost Horizon (1973), directed by Charles Jarrott (musical version)
 Bridge of Time (TV, 1997) directed by Jorge Montesi.

Radio
 A one-hour adaptation by James Hilton and Barbara Burnham was broadcast on the BBC National Programme at 20:30 on 1 August 1935, with a cast that included Esme Percy as "the High Lama", Ben Welden as "Barnard", Barbara Couper as "Miss Brinklow", Jon Swinley as "Conway" and Cathleen Cordell as "Lo Tsen". It was broadcast again on 2 August 1935, 30 and 31 January 1936, 30 October 1939 and 9 April 1945.
 Orson Welles directed and starred in an adaptation for the Campbell Playhouse, broadcast on 3 December 1939 with Sigrid Gurie.
 Ronald Colman reprised his screen role of "Robert Conway" a number of times for radio, including on the Lux Radio Theatre (15 September 1941), Academy Award (27 November 1946) and Favorite Story (24 July 1948).
 Herbert Marshall played "Conway" in Hallmark Playhouse'''s adaptation, broadcast on 30 December 1948.
 The NBC University Theater broadcast an adaptation on 10 September 1950.
 A 3-part serialization of the book by Malcolm Hulke and Paul Tabori was broadcast on the BBC Home Service 5–19 March 1966 featuring Gabriel Woolf as "Conway", Alan Wheatley as "the High Lama", Carleton Hobbs as "Chang" and Elizabeth Proud as "Lo-Tsen". This adaptation was re-broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Sunday Play 18 May – 1 June 1969.
 Derek Jacobi starred as "Hugh Conway" and Alan Wheatley reprised his role as "the High Lama" in a 3-part BBC Radio 4 Classic Serial adaptation dramatised by Barry Campbell. Originally broadcast 22 September – 4 October 1981, it was re-broadcast 8–10 September 2010 on BBC Radio 7, and again in March 2012, November 2014, June 2016 and December 2019 on BBC Radio 4 Extra.

Musical

The book served as the basis for the unsuccessful 1956 Broadway musical Shangri-La.

PublicationsLost Horizon'' is currently available in paperback format and is now published by Summersdale Publishers Ltd ,  and Vintage ,  in the UK and by Harper Perennial,  in the United States.

References

External links
 
 Lost Horizon at Project Gutenberg Australia
 Review by Steven Silver
 Clues to real Shangri-La point to China

1933 British novels
1933 fantasy novels
British novels adapted into films
English fantasy novels
Hawthornden Prize-winning works
Lost world novels
Macmillan Publishers books
Novels set in Tibet
Novels by James Hilton
Utopian novels
Novels set in fictional countries
Novels set in British India
《잃어버린 지평선》()은 1933년 발행된 영국의 소설가 제임스 힐튼이 쓴 소설이다. 샹그릴라(Shangri-La)의 원전(origin)으로 유명하다. 소설 속에서 샹그릴라는 티베트의 산맥속에 있는 라마교 사원 공동체로 신비스런 가공의 유토피아로 그려졌다.

개요 
주인공 휴 콘웨이(Hugh Conway)는 영국의 베테랑 외교관의 신분으로 인간의 나이라고는 잊고 사는 사람들의 공동체에서 내적인 평화와 사랑과 샹그릴라의 목적 그 자체를 발견한다. 책 속에는 당시의 정세를 서술하는 가운데 또다른 파국적 전쟁(제2차 세계대전)의 불길한 전조를 암시하고 있는 바, 이것은 그대로 현실화하였다. 내셔널 지오그래픽(National Geographic) 지의 탐험가인 생물학자 조셉 록(Joseph Rock)이 쓴 티베트 국경지방 여행기가 최소한 부분적으로라도 책에 영향을 미친 것으로 알려졌다. 록이 방문한 마을들은 저자가 묘사한 샹그릴라와 많은 점에서 유사하다. 그 중 한 곳인 중띠엔(Zhongdian)은 (바로 그 때문에) 공식적으로 샹그릴라로 명칭이 바뀌었다.

요약 
11개의 장(章)으로 이루어진 본문, 그리고 이것의 경위를 설명하는 프롤로그와 에필로그로 구성되어 있다. 프롤로그와 에필로그의 나레이터는 주인공의 친구이자 소설가인 러더포드(Rutherford)가 맡았다.

Cigars had burned low, and we were beginning to ~ 로 시작하는 첫 장면, 러더포드가 베를린의 템플호프(Tempelhof)에서 오랜만에 옛친구들과 만나 저녁식사를 하는 자리다. 이런 저런 이야기 도중에 대학시절 모두의 관심과 부러움의 대상이었던 콘웨이(Conway)가 잠깐 화제가 되었다. 모임이 끝난 후, 밤이 깊었을 때, 러더포드는 행방불명이 된 것으로 알려진 콘웨이에 대한 놀라운 소식을 다른 친구에게 말해 준다.

콘웨이는 1931년 5월 인도의 바스쿨(Baskul)지방에서 폭동이 일어나자 현지 영사(consul)로서 자국민들을 파키스탄 Peshawar로 피난시키는 임무를 맡았다. 일을 마무리하고 그 자신도 다른 일행과 비행기에 올랐지만 그들이 탄 비행기가 엉뚱한 조종사에 의해 계획과는 전혀 다른 목적지를 향하여 날고 있음을 알게 된다. 납치극이라고 생각했던 그 일이 착륙도중에 조종사가 죽음으로 인해 종잡을 수 없게 되었지만, 히말라야를 넘어 어딘가의 장소에서 꼼짝없이 조난당하게 된 그들 앞에 한 떼의 사람들이 나타났다. 그 우두머리인 장(Chang)이라는 사람은 놀랍게도 영어와 영국식 예법을 완벽하게 구사하였다. 이로써 그와 다른 3명의 일행은 외부세계에 전혀 알려지지 않고, 지도에도 나와 있지 않은 샹그릴라라고 하는 신천지에 초대되었다. 이하 생략.

영향 
1933년에 출간된 이 책은 1934년 (동일한 저자의 책인) 《굿바이 미스터 칩스》가 출판된 직후 사람들의 관심을 끌었다. 나아가 페이퍼백 형식으로 출간된 포켓 북(Pocket Book) 시리즈로 엄청난 성공을 거두게 된다. 프랭클린 D. 루스벨트(Franklin D. Roosevelt)미국 대통령은 메릴랜드주(Maryland)에 있는 대통령 휴양지를 샹그릴라로 명명할 정도였다. 훗날 캠프 데이비드(Camp David)라는 이름으로 바뀌었다. 샹그릴라라는 이름은 무릉도원과 비슷한 의미를 지니는 보통명사가 되었으며 호텔의 상호에 쓰인 예도 있다(샹그릴라 호텔).

영화 

두 차례 영화화되었다.
 Lost Horizon (1937년), 프랑크 카프라(Frank Capra) 감독, 콜롬비아 영화사, 주연은 로널드 콜만(Ronald Colman), 제인 와이어트(Jane Wyatt).
여주인공인 제인 와이어트(Jane Wyatt)의 가장 성공적인 출연작으로 꼽힌다. 그녀는 배우 그레고리 팩과 함께 〈신사협정〉(Gentleman's Agreement)에 출연하였고, 《스타 트렉》을 비롯 티비 시리즈물에 나오는 등 다양한 배우활동을 하였다. 세 차례 에미상(best actress)을 수상하였다. 상원의원 조지프 매카시에 대한 노골적인 반대활동으로 배우경력에 타격을 입었다. 심지어는 당시 루스벨트 대통령의 부탁때문에 한 일이었는데도 제2차 세계대전 중에 볼쇼이 발레단(Bolshoi Ballet) 공연을 후원한 일이 문제가 되기도 했다. 결국 그녀는 고향과도 같은 뉴욕의 연극 무대로 돌아가서 한동안 시간을 보내야 했는데, 릴리언 헬먼의 《가을의 정원》(The Autumn Garden) 같은 작품에 출연하였다.

영화 〈잃어버린 지평선〉에 대해서는 "전쟁중이라서 그들은 평화주의적인 장면은 모두 삭제했어요. 도중에 하이라마(the High Lama)가 세계평화에 대해서 말하는 장면이 나오죠. 그건 모두 잘렸어요. 군인들이 나와서 '빵! 빵!' 하고 총 쏘는 장면을 더 원했거든요. 결국 그게 필름을 망쳐버렸어요." 라고 말한 적이 있다. 미국 상류계층 출신이다. 선조의 한 사람(Rufus King)이 미국 헌법의 서명자이며, 부친은 월스트리트의 투자은행가였다. 영부인 엘레노어 루스벨트의 먼 친척이기도 하다. 1910년 8월 12일 출생. 2006년 10월 20일 캘리포니아, 벨 에어(Bel-Air)의 자택에서 노환으로 사망하였다. 향년 96세. 
 Lost Horizon (1973년), 찰스 자롯 감독 (뮤지컬)

같이 보기 
 무릉도원
 할리우드 텐
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참조

외부 링크 
  Lost Horizon, by James Hilton, 원문을 ebook 형태로 볼 수 있다.
  Website dedicated to the novel and derivative works 
  Review by Steven Silver 
  Clues to real Shangri-La point to China

영국의 판타지 소설
영국의 과학 소설
영화화된 영국 소설
티베트를 배경으로 한 소설
인도를 배경으로 한 소설
가공의 나라를 배경으로 한 작품
유토피아 소설
1933년 소설
미국 국립영화등기부 등재 영화