Breakfast at Tiffany's is a
novella by
Truman Capote published, along with three of his short stories, in book form by
Random House in
1958. The same year the novella appeared unabridged in the November issue of
Esquire. The novella's prose style prompted
Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation," adding that he "would not have changed two words in
Breakfast at Tiffany's".
The heroine of
Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly Golightly, became one of Capote's best-known creations and a cultural icon. Capote himself acknowledged that Golightly was the favorite of his characters. The film
Breakfast at Tiffany's, based on the novella and starring
Audrey Hepburn, was released in 1961.
Plot
The novella tells the story of a one-year (autumn 1943 to autumn 1944) friendship between the main character, Holiday ("Holly") Golightly, and an unnamed narrator. The two are both tenants in a
brownstone apartment in
Manhattan's
Upper East Side. Holly Golightly (age 19-20) is a Texas-born country hick turned New York café society girl, who makes her living coaxing dollars off of rich, older gentlemen. The narrator, who lives in the flat above her, is an aspiring writer. Golightly, who likes to stun people with carefully selected tidbits from her personal life or her outspoken viewpoint on various topics, slowly reveals herself to the narrator. In the end, however, Golightly fears that she will never know what is really hers until after she has thrown it away; she subsequently abandons her friend to seek her ever elusive goal of finding both riches and a place to call home.
Background
In early drafts of the story Holly was named Connie Gustafson; however, Capote later changed her name to Holiday Golightly. He based the character of Holly on several different women, including
Gloria Vanderbilt,
Oona Chaplin and
Walter Matthau's wife,
Carol Grace. Capote was also unsuccessfully sued for libel and invasion of privacy by a
Manhattan resident named Bonnie Golightly who claimed that he had based Holly on her.
Adaptations
In
1961, the novella was loosely adapted into the movie
Breakfast at Tiffany's starring
Audrey Hepburn and directed by
Blake Edwards. The movie was transposed to contemporary times rather than the 1940s, the period of the novel.
Holly Golightly, a
musical version of
Breakfast at Tiffany's, premiered in 1966 in Boston. The initial performances were panned by the critics and despite a rewrite by
Edward Albee it closed after only four performances.
Three years later,
Stefanie Powers and
Jack Kruschen starred in another adaptation,
Holly Golightly (1969), an unsold ABC sitcom pilot. Kruschen's role was based on Joe Bell, a major character in Capote's novella who was omitted from the film version.
Playwright
Samuel Adamson adapted the novella into a play for a 2009 production at the
Theatre Royal Haymarket in London, directed by
Sean Mathias and starring
Anna Friel as Holly Golightly and
Joseph Cross as William Parsons.
See also
