Michael Arlen

The London Venture, has been considered important throughout human history. In an effort to ensure that this work is never lost, we have taken steps to secure its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for both current and future generations. This complete book has been retyped, redesigned, and reformatted. Since these books are not scans of the authors' original publications, the text is readable and clear.

The Green Hat perfectly reflects the atmosphere of the 1920s-the post-war fashion for verbal smartness, youthful cynicism, and the spirit of rebellion of the "bright young things" of Mayfair. Iris Storm, femme fatale, races around London and Europe in her yellow Hispano-Suiza surrounded by romantic intrigue, but beneath the glamour she is destined to be a tragic heroine. A perfect synecdoche, in fact: as the hat is to the woman, so the words of the title are to an entire literary style. The success of the novel when it was first published in 1924 let to its adaptation for the screen, with Greta Garbo starring as Iris Storm.

Michael Arlen (1895 - 1956), was an Armenian essayist, short story writer, novelist, playwright, and scriptwriter, who had his greatest successes in the 1920s while living and writing in England. Although Arlen is most famous for his satirical romances set in English smart society, he also wrote gothic horror and psychological thrillers, for instance "The Gentleman from America", which was filmed in 1956 as a television episode for Alfred Hitchcock's TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In this book: Ghost Stories The London Venture The Romantic Lady

L'un des plus grands succes romanesques anglais de l'entre-deux guerres Le Chapeau vert est un inenarrable tableau de combat de l'Angleterre traditionnelle contre la nouvelle liberte de moeurs. L'auteur y decrit de facon impitoyable une societe de jeunes gens qui habitent Mayfair, descendent au Normandy et au Ritz, partent en voiture de sport sur la cote d'Azur et se baignent nus dans la Tamise. Iris March, vingt-neuf ans, en qui l'on peut reconnaitre Nancy Cunard, l'amie d'Aragon a l'epoque, est le centre de cette societe. Elle a eu deux maris: Boy Fenwick, qui s'est jete du balcon d'une chambre d'hotel, et Storm, assassine par les terroristes du Sinn Fein. Plus excentrique on meurt Le Chapeau vert devint instantanement un livre culte: Francis Scott Fitzgerald le relisait sans cesse, et ne cachait pas combien il lui devait pour la creation de Gatsby, et Virginia Woolf s'en inspira quelque peu pour Les Vagues. Michael Arlen (1895-1956), ne Dikran Kouyoumdjian, a Rustschuk, en Bulgarie, fut envoye, par son pere, un riche armenien, a Malvern College, une elegante public school. En 1922, il acquiert la nationalite britannique. La publication du Chapeau vert va lui assurer une celebrite durable. Cet enorme succes de librairie, sans cesse reimprime, acquit tres vite le statut de manifeste d'une generation, celle qui n'avait echappe a la Premiere Guerre mondiale que pour connaitre la grande crise des totalitarismes. Sous ses aspects cyniques, brillants et snobs, ce roman resume un temps ou le bruit des fetes et des cocktails parvenait de plus en plus mal a etouffer le grondements des orages a venir.