Hot Girl Summer, literary edition: an aesthetic and a booklist

Are you longing to swathe yourself in fine Indian muslin and make some questionable romantic decisions? These fictional leading ladies will show you the way.

Have you settled on your summer aesthetic yet? No, neither have I. Somehow as a nursing mother with bad genes, that trend is eclipsed by my goal to hide away from the smothering humidity and UV rays.

But it is a phenomenon of great import to chronically online young women committed to confusing the record of their existence on Instagram or TikTok with life itself. And as my recent internet diggings have revealed, there’s a whole catalogue of looks to choose from. Hot Girl Summer is the trend that started them all, but why stop there when you can live out Soft Girl Summer or Italian Tomato Girl Summer? You can even be a Coastal Grandma this summer or revel in the kitsch glory of Vacation Dadcore.

But maybe you're looking for an original aesthetic this season. One that says, “I may be upholstered in yards of fabric, but I'll manage the heat with the aid of my unbending will corset and all that Edwardian repression I've got in reserve.” Or maybe you're looking for a look that says, “I know I look like I've got it together on the outside, but I'm completely lacking a moral compass on the inside.”¹

Something like what these ladies have going on:

Simplon Pass. Reading, John Singer Sargeant, 1911.

Lucky for you, there are a few leading ladies of 20th century fiction to inspire your Literary Hot Girl Summer.

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Marian Maudsley from The Go-Between (1953) by L.P. Hartley

Julie Christie as Marian Maudsley in the 1971 film adaptation. Have not seen. Is it good?

To evoke the Marian Maudsley look, it would help to have the completely clueless twelve year old classmate of your younger brother staying at your country manor this summer. Give him a helping hand once or twice and he will worship the ground you walk on. Then you can manipulate him into unwittingly running your salacious errands for you. Just make sure you have zero qualms about ruining his life forever. Dress him up in a cute green suit to emphasize his naivete and to further draw attention to the innocent aura your lily-white frocks give off.

Alice Keach from A Month in the Country (1980) by J.L. Carr

Colin Firth as Tom Birkin and Natasha Richardson as Alice Keach in the 1987 film. Have seen! Adore it!

You only have to do a few things to look the part of the angelic vicar’s wife, Alice Keach. First, carry around a bag of apples to offer to the resident artist who is spending the summer restoring your church’s 12th century mural. (Extra points for memorizing the names of apple varieties so you can recite them poetically at will.) Acquire a husband who looks like the crypt keeper to make your heart of gold shine even brighter by comparison and lend you a romantically tragic air. Lastly, don’t forget to give the aforementioned artist a fresh cut rose to instill within his bosom the persistent, haunting question of “What if?” whenever he thinks of you.

Charity Royall from Summer (1917) by Edith Wharton

Diane Lane as Charity Royall (have also not seen this one)

Make sure everyone around you knows you are better than them and this backwater town. Get a job in the local library to get away from home and then proceed to never do a day’s work there. Don’t have too high a standard when it comes to romance. The first newcomer from the city will do for stealing your heart and making false promises to you.

Kate Heron from In a Summer Season (1961) by Elizabeth Taylor

Summer Morning, Wilfrid Gabriel de Glehn, Paisley Art Institute Collection, 1936

Don’t shy away from dyeing your hair (call it a “coloured rinse” if that feels more palatable) and from hitching up with a significantly younger husband to recapture your receding youth. Also, don’t shy away from the misgivings both the hair and the husband give you. Unlike the other ladies on this list, Kate gives an option for those who are past the bloom of youth and want to come off as nonchalant, carefree, and confident in their decisions even as they are plagued by existential questions like, “Is this all there is to life?” and “Am I just passing time, squandering the years away?”

Araminta, also from In a Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor

I imagine Twiggy is Araminta’s fashion icon

If you want fatalistic allure, look no further than Zuleika Dobson’s literary godchild, Araminta. Start by giving a friendly but impersonal attitude to the all the men who fall at your feet. Then really test their patience by showing utter disregard for their feelings and their belongings. Eat toast in their cars and drip runny honey all over the seats while urging them to drive faster. Also, it’s advisable to wear strange DIY outfits to dinner parties to further your bizarre but undeniable appeal.

Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ah Daisy. She’s the fictional woman who could be said to have inspired the Hot Girl Summer trend before it ever had a name. To achieve her look, you must cultivate a voice that sounds like money, and like so many other women on this list, you must care little for destroying other people’s lives and property. As this helpful post about the Hot Girl Summer trend tells us, HGS is “all about looking good and living your best life, just the way you are!” Surely, Daisy Buchanan is a prime model for such a way of life.

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Silliness aside, these are all beautifully written books to set the mood for the season. Some of these are what I call tea-kettle books, with both the summer temps and plots rapidly heating up to a boiling point in a devastating climax. Some, like A Month in the Country, are more meditative dealing with the fleetingness of life and the way the choices we make in youth limit or direct our lives.

All the women here in so many ways embody summer itself. In all these books the season of summer becomes conflated with the season of youth and its follies. And as the heat dies down, then these women and the other main characters in each story must face cold questions about mortality and decay. So, too, must they contend with the fact that their hasty, passionate decisions will reverberate long into their later years.

I imagine this won’t be the last I’ll write about these books, but for now, you’ve got a gorgeous summer reading list here to get cracking on.

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1. If this is actually you, please seek help.