The green hat (original 1924; edition 2008)

The Green hat was a huge international bestseller in the 1920s and must have been quite scandalous at the time. Few books in that era featured an 18-year-old heroine who declared that she needed to have sex and would do so whether she married her true love or not. It's the story of Iris, the daughter of decayed English aristocracy whose life is plagued by tragedy. The book is a hoot to read, not that the author intended it to be. Arlen's prose is mostly turgid and convoluted with the occasional pretty turn of phrase and astute observation. (I like the definition of casual elegance: the combination of a good tailor and a lean Englishman.) Moreover, most of the characters talk in the stiff-upper-lip, no-letting-down-the-side parlance that sounds ridiculous to modern ears. Arlen was an ethnic Armenian who was raised in Bulgaria and he brings an outsider's perspective to British upper class society that is fawning and dismissive by turns. It was like a cheap date: I had fun, but wouldn't care to do it again. ( )

The Green Hat was written by a Armenian author, naturalized citizen of the United Kingdom and published in the London and the US in 1924. I read a 1924 edition, ILL loan book. As I mentioned, the pages were quite fragile. I am so thankful for libraries and ILL loans that make it possible to read these books. The Green Hat tells the story of Iris Storm. It is a satirical romance set in London. Iris is prevented from marrying her childhood sweetheart Napier Harpenden. She is widowed twice and suffers through several love affairs. There is so much tragedy that you just know there is going to be more and therefore there is an element of suspense in this modernistic novel. The narrator is a writer and introduces self, “writes the author”. Many authors and literary works are mentioned in the early chapters. I just finished reading Tono-Bongay by H. G. Wells and this book mentions H. G. Wells and mentions his book Tono-Bongay. It also mentions The Good Soldier and Ulysses. Also of note is the bigotry in the book. The author refers to Jews, Red Indians and glorious n……
***contains some spoilers***
Iris is of the March family. Her twin brother is a drunk and she meets the author when she tries to visit her twin brother. This book is full of suicides and telling lies to save honor. After her first husband dies by suicide, Iris tells everyone he died “for purity”. Everyone assumes that Iris wasn’t pure when she went to her marriage bed and her husband therefore jumped out the window. Her second husband gives her an emerald that doesn’t fit and tells her that she must learn to keep the ring on as she must learn to keep herself from affairs. That husband dies too. So Iris wears a large brimmed green hat and wears a green ring. There is a lot of green in the descriptions of clothing and scenes. Iris drove a yellow Hispano-Suiza car with a stork hood adornment. She drove fast. Iris decides that she will not let anyone keep her from Napier any longer. They are going to run away together and finally enjoy the love they have for each other. Only Napier is too much like his father and his concern for his own reputation makes him tell everyone what Iris meant when she told everyone her husband had died “for purity”. In the end, Napier fails her and Napier’s father wins the battle. Iris leaves with her green hat in her exotic car that “can do 76 if you like”. This book may have been written in 1924 I still found it to be very enjoyable story of high-speed modernity. The book has been republished by it has been republished by Capuchin Classics and I would recommend it if you like tragedy, romance and modernity. ( )

I so wanted to read this book when I was a teenager greedily devouring Evelyn Waugh, Harold Acton, Nancy Mitford, and all those characters of that mad jazz age in the 1920s. It was a legendary book, cited in the pages of everyone who was everyone, but sadly missing from Gloucestershire libraries at the time.

So... imagine a novel written by Antony Blanche from Brideshead, and you've pretty much got the Green Hat. Most of the prose would benefit enormously from being read with a drawly speech impediment between brandy alexanders - filthy rich, daringly shocking, the novel visits all the best places (from the Paris convent where all the best inconvenient pregnancies go to the nightclub of the night (sure to close down next week) to the stateliest of homes). And it is seen with all the best people, drinks the best drinks - and is ultimately a book that only an outsider could have written. Comparing anyone to Evelyn Waugh is unfair, but I think the main contrast is that Waugh never stops laughing, while Arlen is desperately serious at all times.

This isn't a great book, but it is a curiosity. I picked it up from the perspective of a die-hard Greta Garbo fan. The Green Hat served as source material for the 1928 silent A Woman of Affairs (arguably one of Garbo's best silent films). Considering how rotten some film adaptations were at that time in comparison to the books they were based off of (e.g. both Garbo versions of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina), it's interesting to see how Bess Meredyth and Clarence Brown did with this novel. The film adaptation is, in some ways, more compelling than the novel, which sometimes smacks of an irritating cross between John Galsworthy and Graham Greene. If you're into the movie, though, it is worth reading the book to decide for yourself.

Another point of interest lies in the fact that The Green Hat was the bestselling sensation of 1924. One can't but help reflecting on how much the general public has changed its taste as it has transitioned from a culture that made this book into a sensation into one now in which Harry Potter is the talk of the town. ( )

Some critics claimed Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" was a shadow of Michael Arlen's "The Green Hat." They were wrong, but it's interesting to read what else critics were reading during the early Hemingway epoch. ( )