6/7/2023 0 Comments Novel by james hiltonDo you refer to a distant, mythical, regenerative refuge as a “Shangri-La?” Are your ideas of Buddhist monasteries, or rather lamaseries, thoughts of tranquil repose among books and music in a secluded, unreachable mountain retreat? Then you have Hilton to thank. And to this list, which is obviously grossly incomplete, we may add one other: James Hilton’s 1933 novel, Lost Horizon. And everyone knows phrases from Sherlock Holmes, even if they are wrong: “elementary,” “the dog in the night-time,” “my dear Watson.” For that matter, few people have read Karel Capek’s play R.U.R., but everyone knows what a robot is, whether it is Rossum’s, or Universal, or not (I’m told by family lore that Capek is a distant relative on one side, but that’s probably its own baroque fantasy). Or, to dip again into Dumas’ prolific well of ideas, the concept of a prisoner in an iron masque is familiar, even routine. Most people understand the concept of “the three musketeers”, inseparable, fast friends who stick by one another through anything, whether they’ve read Dumas’ novels or not. It imparts from itself to the language one or two key concepts or phrases which were never present before. Occasionally, a popular book permeates the public consciousness so thoroughly that it remains long after the initial book is forgotten (or at least, before the current American kakistocracy, this used to happen).
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