Three iconic novels about an unforgettable schoolmaster and a timeless utopia by the award-winning, New York Times–bestselling author.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips: Throughout his tenure at an English boys’ school, stern Arthur Chipping has shaped many young lives. But Mr. Chips has been inspired as well—by the social changes of his country and, not least, by his students. Based on Hilton’s experiences at the Leys School, Cambridge, this novel is an enduring testament to the difference one good teacher can make.
“A tender and gentle story as warming to the heart and as nourishing to the spirit as any I can remember.” —Alexander Woollcott, The New Yorker
To You, Mr. Chips: When James Hilton penned his beloved Goodbye, Mr. Chips, he drew on his own formative years at a Cambridge boarding school. In this collection, he adds to the legend of Mr. Chips through exquisite short stories, as well as autobiographical sketches of his experience with the English public school system during the first half of a tumultuous century.
Mr. Chips is “one of the most endearing creations of modern fiction” (The Daily Telegraph).
Lost Horizon: When British diplomat Hugh Conway’s plane crashes in the Himalayas, he and fellow survivors are led to the hidden valley of Shangri-La, a paradise kept secret for more than two hundred years. In this idyll, where inhabitants live for centuries amid peace and harmony, the visitors must face the daunting prospect of returning home to a world about to be torn open by war.
“One of the century’s most enduring literary mysteries.” —The Guardian
James Hilton (1900–1954) was a bestselling English novelist and Academy Award–winning screenwriter. After attending Cambridge University, Hilton worked as a journalist until the success of his novels Lost Horizon (1933) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1934) launched his career as a celebrated author. Hilton’s writing is known for its depiction of English life between the two world wars, its celebration of English character, and its honest portrayal of life in the early twentieth century.