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Truman Capote
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Breakfast at Tiffany's (D1727) Complete and Unabridged) Paperback – January 1, 1961

by Truman Capote (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 646 ratings
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Golden Globe-winning actor Michael C. Hall (Dexter, Six Feet Under) performs Truman Capote's provocative, naturalistic masterstroke about a young writer's charmed fascination with his unorthodox neighbor, the "American geisha" Holly Golightly. Holly--a World War II-era society girl in her late teens--survives via socialization, attending parties and restaurants with men from the wealthy upper class who also provide her with money and expensive gifts. Over the course of the novella, the seemingly shallow Holly slowly opens up to the curious protagonist, who eventually gets tossed away as her deepening character emerges.Breakfast at Tiffany's, Truman Capote's most beloved work of fiction, introduced an independent and complex character who challenged audiences, revived Audrey Hepburn's flagging career in the 1961 film version, and whose name and style has remained in the national idiom since publication. Hall uses his diligent attention to character to bring our unnamed narrator's emotional vulnerability to the forefront of this American classic.
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  1. Language
    English
  2. Publisher
    Signet
  3. Publication date
    January 1, 1961
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B004CA7SUO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Signet; 4th edition (January 1, 1961)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.6 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 646 ratings

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Truman Capote

Truman Capote

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Truman Capote was born in New Orleans in 1925 and was raised in various parts of the south, his family spending winters in New Orleans and summers in Alabama and New Georgia. By the age of fourteen he had already started writing short stories, some of which were published. He left school when he was fifteen and subsequently worked for the New Yorker which provided his first - and last - regular job. Following his spell with the New Yorker, Capote spent two years on a Louisiana farm where he wrote Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). He lived, at one time or another, in Greece, Italy, Africa and the West Indies, and travelled in Russia and the Orient. He is the author of many highly praised books, including A Tree of Night and Other Stories (1949), The Grass Harp (1951), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958), In Cold Blood (1965), which immediately became the centre of a storm of controversy on its publication, Music for Chameleons (1980) and Answered Prayers (1986), all of which are published by Penguin. Truman Capote died in August 1984.

Photo by Jack Mitchell [CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
646 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Lori L. Fox
5.0 out of 5 stars So much more than just the title story
Reviewed in the United States on March 3, 2019
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This edition contains 3 stories plus the title story. “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is memorable because the lead character, Holly Golightly, is so memorable. A free spirit with an almost elfish demeanor, her name, though acquired, is more unforgettable than the story itself. The story seemed almost unfinished in that style of so many stories written in the 1950’s.

The true gems of the book are 2 of the 3 shorter stories: “A Diamond Guitar” and “A Christmas Memory”, both magical and deeply satisfying. “A Diamond Guitar” reminds me in some ways of The Shawshank Redemption. Beautiful told in just the right among of descriptive detail, the reader can’t help but picture it in every sentence. I almost felt the chill of the stream as the two main characters cross it.

“A Christmas Memory” is my favorite of the 3. It is tender and beautiful, sentimental but not overly so. Again Capote has chosen each word carefully so as not to render the story too wordy or too sentimental. It’s the kind of story that will stay with you long after the book has been closed. It actually made me want to make and eat fruitcake, something I’ve never liked, because its importance to the story. I agree with the Saturday Review, which proclaimed it, “one of the most moving stories in our language.” Almost 70 years after it was first penned, it still retains that simple power. It’s not a knock-you-over-the-head kind of story, but more a drift-into-your-heart kind of story that once read will not be forgotten.
8 people found this helpful
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Laura
4.0 out of 5 stars Why Not?
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2022
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Capote must have shocked his readers in 1958 w Holly Golightly’ scandalous style. The book was fun and rather short. Why not walk on the wild side with the divine Miss Golightly?
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Hoagland
5.0 out of 5 stars still Great After All These Years
Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2022
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I totally enjoyed revisiting this book. So much better than the movie. Although, I like the movie as well. It’s a classic.
Danni
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Don
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic
Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2022
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Funny and sad, shows a New York pre gentrification. Great characters, like the movie too. Not really a true adaption, more inspired by the book. This version is the cheaper version but without the other stories the other version has.
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Zine B. Smith
3.0 out of 5 stars Would have been nice for literary analysis
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2021
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The short book is Hemingway like in it's obvious symbolism. Kind of a plain, uninteresting story otherwise. I expected more from such a famous book.
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mona
5.0 out of 5 stars You can never go wrong picking up a Truman Capote book to read.
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2021
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Truman Capote is truly the best writer of the thousands I have read. I always speak of him as if he is still with us for that reason. My very favorite is In Cold Blood. A non-fiction treasure.
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MAURO
4.0 out of 5 stars Nice
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2022
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Really well written short story. Better than the movie but it helps if you've seen the movie. Really well done.
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Wendy K.
5.0 out of 5 stars The movie was wonderful, but the book is even stronger
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2019
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Reading anything by Truman Capote is an experience that touches you on many levels. And Breakfast At Tiffany's is no exception. His characters grab you by the collar and shake up your vision of reality. Their uniqueness, their darkness and their humor bring them alive as only Capote can. And no matter how absurdly they travel through their lives, you have to love them.
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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MacDuffy
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in Canada on October 13, 2018
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Just as described and fast shipping
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Goldie Mercado
5.0 out of 5 stars Why did I like it so much
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 10, 2015
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In my desire to “finally read the book”, I have uncovered a literary treasure. It is such a rarity when short stories are able to leave you with an impression of depth and emotion. This particular edition contains four short stories, including the titular story. The review covers all of the stories as they each deserve individual attention.

Why did I like it so much? Truman Capote “drops” the reader into a story and introduces each character in such a manner that you feel as you have known them all your life. The language: its phrases, metaphors are so beautifully used, I wanted to drink them in to be refreshed.

I rate all of the stories 5 golden stars!

Breakfast At Tiffany’s (novella) –
‘Fred’, the narrator of the story, meets Holly Golightly soon after he moves into a brownstone house. He is intrigued by (and instantaneously attracted to) the young woman as she is everything opposite to him. He is reserved, steady and practical. She is a out-going, carefree and always trying to escape her world. He is bound by the mundane of everyday life. She is a free spirit. He is an aspiring writer. She is… well, she is an aspiring gold-digger. Thus begins their unlikely friendship.

Holly is presented as a woman who could charm any man and who loves to be the centre of attention. Her goal in life is to find a rich man and live a rich life. Wasn’t that an expectation of all women in the 1940s? (Isn’t that a lingering expectation of women even now?) However, Holly is also a contradiction to her own goal. Her philosophical discourses throughout the book show more depth to her internal world than she only shares with ‘Fred’. She constantly fights against being placed in a cage and always seeks a place to belong. “Home is where you feel at home. I’m still looking.”

The whole novella is driven by dialogue. It never gets boring. The dialogue (or most of the time, Holly’s philosophical musings) addresses many human issues and societal prejudices, such as belonging and acceptance, love and friendship, sexual orientation and status in the society. The story reveals to the reader life’s obvious contradiction – either having to live a bleak reality caged up by expectations (Holly’s gift to ‘Fred’ was a golden cage) or constantly looking for a fantasy like having breakfast at Tiffany’s. “It’s better to look at the sky than live there”.

House of Flowers –
This short story is about Ottilie, a young woman from Haiti, making the best out of the choices life presents her with. When her mother dies and her father’s gone to France, Ottilie finds herself living with a peasant family whose sons take advantage of her youth. When the family sends her to the market in Port-au-Prince with a heavy sack of grain, she ‘lightens’ her load by spilling the grain on the way. She soon realizes that she’s got no grain nor money to bring back to the peasant family. A chanced meeting with a “nice” stranger brings her to a house everyone calls “Champs-Élysées” in Port-au-Prince. There Ottilie lives a fairly comfortable life as a prostitute, spoiled by men who lavish their attention and gifts on her. Soon, she realizes that all of that is not good unless she loves someone. Enter, Royal Bonaparte, a champion cockfighter from the mountains. She follows him back to his house which ‘was like a house of flowers; wistaria sheltered the roof, a curtain of vines shaded the windows, lilies bloomed at the door.” The house of flowers might appear as an idyllic place of happily ever after, but Royal Bonaparte has a grandmother from hell. Old Bonaparte does everything to drive Ottilie out of her mind and out the house. Ottilie has a choice to run defeated back to Port-au-Prince or stand up to the haggard and, consequently, become a woman of her own and a good wife to her husband.

The style of the story is so beautiful and exotic that you could feel transported into the picturesque Haiti. The Haitian dialect seeps through the pages in terms and phrases that are used through the story. Ottilie has a choice between living a lavish life at Champs-Élysées and not belong to herself, or live a simple life at the house of flowers and be her own woman. The humour and lightness of the storyline reassures the reader that no matter what happens in life, there is a brighter side of things.

A Diamond Guitar focuses on Mr Schaeffer, a prison inmate serving a ninety-nine year sentence for murder, and Tico Feo, a newly arrived prisoner, sentenced to two years for stabbing two men. Mr Schaeffer and Tico develop a strong friendship that has undercurrent intimate feel. Tico has a young fiery personality. He constantly talks about his escape plans. Mr Schaeffer is an older character and is respected by other inmate due to his ability to read and write. He becomes inspired by Tico’s passion. On Valentine’s Day, whilst making an attempt to escape, Tico betrays Mr Schaeffer leaving him behind. Because of his reputation, Mr Schaeffer is credited for his attempt to capture Tico and as a reward receives Tico’s prized possession – a diamond guitar.

No matter how you look at it, A Diamond Guitar is a story of unrequited love. Beautifully written, it possess the feel of nostalgia and longing for something unattainable. A Diamond Guitar is a critically acclaimed story and has been studied by literary scholars for its cultural and literary merits. I couldn’t agree more.

A Christmas Memory – as the title suggests, this short story is a memory of a seven-year-old boy about one particular Christmas that he spent with his elder cousin. His cousin calls him ‘Buddy’ and he refers to his cousin as ‘my best friend’. Both Buddy, his cousin and a dog named Queenie live in the house with other relatives who are stern and authoritative. The family is poor, but during the year Buddy and his cousin would collect pennies for their Fruitcake Fund. In late November, they would collect windfall pecans and buy whiskey from a scary American Indian bootlegger, who turns out to be quite generous, and gives them whiskey in return for one of their fruitcakes. Buddy and his elderly eccentric cousin send their fruitcakes to people they have met once or twice, or whom they have never met at all, like President Roosevelt himself. After sending fruitcakes out, they begin preparations for Christmas: wrapping presents, making each other special kites and finding the best Christmas tree. This is their last Christmas together. Buddy is send to a military school to become a proper man, losing the contact with his best friend.

The story feels very autobiographical. It has a message of friendship, joy of giving and enjoying what you have and whom you have in your life. It also touches on themes of loneliness and loss. “This is our last Christmas together. Life separates us. Those who Know Best decide that I belong in a military school. […] I have a new home too. But it doesn’t count. Home is where my friend is, and there I never go.”
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David
4.0 out of 5 stars un classique a lire
Reviewed in France on April 6, 2012
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Un roman tres court et tres dynamique qui nous fait plonger dans les reves et desillusions de l'amour et la vie. Dans le meme livre, il y a d'autres nouvelles de l'auteur, ce qui en fait un package interessant.
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jcbinok
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Japan on May 7, 2014
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This is the second Capote I have read (In Cold Blood is the other). He is very good at allowing himself (the writer) be part of the story but not dominate. Holly Golightly is a bad-azz: married at 14, rough language, using men for money, hanging around criminals.... I haven't seen the movie, but it sounds like they de-fanged her.
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Neil T
4.0 out of 5 stars The story that launched a major movie
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 15, 2022
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Well written. No plot as such, just someone reminiscing about a girl he once knew. Fairly interesting characters.
The book is decent enough but in my humble opinion is not a classic. I think it is a case of the movie making the book! Having said that, I feel the movie is greatly overrated.
A note for anyone considering buying this Kindle version and wondering why the number of pages do not match that given for the hard copy, the latter contains two additional short stories.
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