The Green Hat
What is The Green Hat about?
The Green Hat (1924) is Michael Arlen’s sensational bestseller, the definitive novel of Jazz Age London society. The story centers on Iris Storm (originally Iris March), a beautiful, enigmatic woman who wears a green felt hat and drives a yellow Hispano-Suiza, living defiantly outside social conventions after the mysterious death of her husband on their wedding night. Iris moves through London’s glittering social world—nightclubs, country houses, Mayfair drawing rooms—leaving behind her a trail of fascinated admirers and scandalized moralists. At the heart of the novel is her impossible love for Dorian March (Dorian Dowell in later editions), who has married conventionally, and the question of what secret drives Iris’s reckless, self-destructive behavior. Arlen’s prose is polished, witty, and atmospheric, capturing the heady glamour and underlying melancholy of the 1920s. The novel caused a sensation upon publication and was adapted into a hit play and a film starring Greta Garbo.
Main themes in The Green Hat
Jazz Age Society
The presence of jazz age society in The Green Hat connects readers to its enduring relevance.
Women and Rebellion
The Green Hat thoughtfully explores women and rebellion through its central conflicts.
London High Society
In The Green Hat, london high society provides a lens for understanding the story's core message.
Scandal and Convention
The presence of scandal and convention in The Green Hat connects readers to its enduring relevance.
Why The Green Hat is still relevant today
The Green Hat captures the spirit of the 1920s—its glamour, rebellion, and sense of living on the edge—better than almost any other novel of the period. As a portrait of a woman who refused to conform, it anticipates later feminist literary heroines.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is The Green Hat about?
A beautiful, mysterious woman in 1920s London defies social convention while harboring a devastating secret, moving through glittering society toward a tragic conclusion. Read it free on TextStack.
Was The Green Hat adapted?
Yes—into a hit stage play starring Tallulah Bankhead and a 1928 film starring Greta Garbo, retitled A Woman of Affairs due to censorship concerns.
Is The Green Hat difficult to read?
Arlen’s prose is witty and elegant, capturing 1920s dialogue and atmosphere with style. The novel is a pleasure to read for anyone who enjoys sophisticated, atmospheric fiction.
Why was this novel so scandalous?
Its frank treatment of sexual freedom, social hypocrisy, and a woman living entirely on her own terms shocked 1920s readers, though the content seems tame by modern standards.