Last week, I reread Lost Horizon, by James Hilton, one of the classical Utopias described in literature and also one of the most known of them. In fact, the place in which the story takes place, Shangri-La, became, partly because of a homonymous movie directed by Frank Capra, a synonymous of Utopia itself.

For those who never heard about it, the book tells the adventures of a group of four persons (three English citizens and an American one) who, while escaping a revolt in Indian lands, found that they have been kidnapped for an unknown purpose, and that they are being taken to a similarly unknown place. The flight ends when the plane crashes in the high Tibetan plateaus. The pilot dies and the four companions are left stranded in the snow to hope for survival and a return to civilization. They start seeking shelter just to be greeted by a mysterious Mr. Chang who invites them to visit a “monastery” in the vicinity. Lacking options, they agree to follow him, and a few hours later are presented to the idyllic valley of Shangri-La where they will find themselves involved in equally mysterious secrets.

To avoid telling more about the plot, I will just say the story is much more about the loss of a Utopia and the human contradictions when searching for such a condition than the usual sermon about the benefits of this kind of society. Even so, the book follows the typical pattern of describing an unknown culture in which a character belonging to the latter explains to the outside characters his civilization in deliberate infodumps.

I liked the book as much as when I read it for the first time, although its weak points are rather evident. The most obvious relates to the characters that seem too superficial. Also, the interactions that take place in the book feel unnatural sometimes. Hilton better handles the main character, Hugh Conway, but by the end of the history Conway is as one-dimensional as the others. To Hilton’s credit, however, he marvelously constructs Shangri-La’s atmosphere.

I’m going into details about the philosophy present in the book because I think each reader should take his own conclusions about them. Merely as information, I reproduce what Chang says about it at a given point in the book: “We rule with moderate strictness, and in return we are satisfied with moderate obedience. And I think I can claim that our people are moderately sober, moderately chaste, and moderately honest.”

In short, although the book has some weaknesses, it makes for a pleasant reading, and Shangri-La will likely remain in the reader’s mind for a long time. As one of the classical Utopias, it’s also a required reading for any book lover.