Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1950) by Truman Capote The novella tells the story of a one-year (autumn 1943 to autumn 1944) friendship between Holiday Golightly and an unnamed narrator. Both tenants in a brownstone apartment in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Holly Golightly, a country girl turned New York cafe society girl, makes her living coaxing dollars off of rich, older gentlemen. The narrator, who lives in the flat above her, is an aspiring writer. Golightly enjoys stunning people with carefully selected titbits from her personal life and outspoken views on various topics. She slowly reveals herself to the narrator becomes fascinated by her curious lifestyle. 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 and comfortable lifestyle to seek her ever elusive goal of finding both riches and a place to call home. About the author When Truman Capote debuted on the New York literary scene in 1948, no one had seen anything quite like him. Capote soon became famous for his intensely readable and nuanced short stories, novels, and novellas, but he was equally famous as a personality, gadfly, and bon vivant —not to mention as a crime writer. Capote’s much-imitated 1965 book, In Cold Blood, all but invented the narrative true-crime genre. Capote is also credited with the development of what is now referred to as "literary non-fiction." More Truman Capote was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, the son of 17-year-old Lillie Mae (nee Faulk) and Archelaus Persons, who was a salesman.When he was four, his parents divorced, and he was sent to Monroeville, Alabama, where he was raised by his mother's relatives. He formed a fast bond with his mother's distant relative, Nanny Rumbley Faulk, whom Truman called 'Sook'. "Her face is remarkable—not unlike Lincoln's, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind," is how Capote described Sook in "A Christmas Memory." In Monroeville, he was a neighbour and friend of Harper Lee, who grew up to write To Kill a Mockingbird. As a lonely child, Capote taught himself to read and write before he entered the first grade in school. Capote was often seen at age five carrying his dictionary and notepad, and he began writing when he was ten. At this time, he was given the nickname Bulldog, possibly a pun reference of "Bulldog Truman" to the fictional detective Bulldog Drummond popular in films of the mid-1930s. On Saturdays, he made trips from Monroeville to Mobile, and when he was ten, he submitted his short story, "Old Mr. Busybody," to a children's writing contest sponsored by the Mobile Press Register. In 1933, he moved to New York City to live with his mother and her second husband, Joseph Capote, a Cuban-born textile broker, who adopted his stepson and renamed him Truman García Capote. When he was 11, he began writing seriously in daily three-hour sessions. Of his early days Capote related, "I began writing really sort of seriously when I was about eleven. I say seriously in the sense that like other kids go home and practice the violin or the piano or whatever, I used to go home from school every day and I would write for about three hours. I was obsessed by it." When he was 17, Capote ended his formal education and began a two-year job at The New Yorker. Years later, he wrote... “Not a very grand job, for all it really involved was sorting cartoons and clipping newspapers. Still, I was fortunate to have it, especially since I was determined never to set a studious foot inside a college classroom. I felt that either one was or wasn't a writer, and no combination of professors could influence the outcome. I still think I was correct, at least in my own case.” Between 1943 and 1946, Capote wrote a continual flow of short fiction, for which he won the O. Henry Award. His stories were published in both literary quarterlies and well-known magazines, including Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Bazaar, Harper's Magazine, Mademoiselle, The New
Yorker, Prairie Schooner and Story. Interviewed in 1957 for the the Paris Review, Capote was asked about his short story technique, answering: Since each story presents its own technical problems, obviously one can't generalize about them on a two-times-two-equals-four basis. Finding the right form for your story is simply to realize the most natural way of telling the story. The test of whether or not a writer has defined the natural shape of his story is just this: After reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence your imagination and seem to you absolute and final? As an orange is final. As an orange is something nature has made just right. In 1943 Capote wrote his first novel, Summer Crossing about the summer romance of Fifth Avenue socialite Grady O'Neil with a parking lot attendant. Capote later claimed to have destroyed it, and it was regarded as a lost work. However, it was stolen in 1966 by a house sitter Capote hired to watch his Brooklyn apartment, resurfaced in 2004 and was published by Random House in 2005. In June 1946, one of his short stories, "Miriam" (which won an O. Henry Award) attracted the attention of publisher Bennett Cerf, resulting in a contract with Random House to write a novel. With an advance of $1,500, Capote described the symbolic tale as "a poetic explosion in highly suppressed emotion." The novel is a semi-autobiographical refraction of Capote's Alabama childhood. Fame When Other Voices, Other Rooms was published in 1948, it stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for nine weeks, selling more than 26,000 copies, catapulting Capote to fame. Random House followed the success of Other Voices, Other Rooms with A Tree of Night and Other Stories in 1949. In addition to "Miriam," this collection also includes "Shut a Final Door." First published in Atlantic Monthly (August, 1947), "Shut a Final Door" won a second O. Henry Award in 1948. Capote remained a lifelong friend of his Monroeville neighbour Harper Lee, and he based the character of Idabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms on her. He in turn was the inspiration for the character Dill, in Lee's 1960 bestselling, Pulitzer prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird. Like Capote, Dill is creative, bold and had an unsatisfactory family history. In an interview with Lawrence Grobel, Capote recalled his childhood, "Mr. and Mrs. Lee, Harper Lee's mother and father, lived very near. Harper Lee was my best friend. Did you ever read her book, To Kill a Mockingbird? I'm a character in that book, which takes place in the same small town in Alabama where we both lived." Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories brought together the title novella and three shorter tales: "House of Flowers," "A Diamond Guitar" and "A Christmas Memory." The heroine of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly Golightly, became one of Capote's best-known creations, and the book's prose style prompted Norman Mailer to call Capote "the most perfect writer of my generation." A first edition of this book might sell for from $500 to more than $3000, depending upon condition. In Cold Blood In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences, was inspired by a 300word article that ran on page 39 of New York Times on Monday, November 16, 1959. The story described the unexplained murder of the Clutter family in rural Holcomb, Kansas. In Cold Blood was serialized in The New Yorker in 1965 and published in hardcover by Random House in 1966. The "non-fiction novel," as Capote labelled it, brought him literary acclaim and became an international bestseller. A feud between Capote and British arts critic Kenneth Tynan erupted in the pages of The Observerafter Tynan's review of In Cold Blood implied that Capote wanted an execution so the book would have an effective ending. (An issue suggested by the 2005 movie, Capote, starring
Philip Seymour Hoffman.) In Cold Blood brought Capote much praise from the literary community, but there were some who questioned certain events as reported in the book. Writing in Esquire in 1966, Phillip K. Tompkins noted factual discrepancies after he travelled to Kansas and talked to some of the same people interviewed by Capote. In his article, Tompkins concluded: Capote has, in short, achieved a work of art. He has told exceedingly well a tale of high terror in his own way. But, despite the brilliance of his self-publicizing efforts, he has made both a tactical and a moral error that will hurt him in the short run. By insisting that “every word� of his book is true he has made himself vulnerable to those readers who are prepared to examine seriously such a sweeping claim. True Crime writer Jack Olsen also commented on the fabrications: "I recognized it as a work of art, but I know fakery when I see it," Olsen says. "Capote completely fabricated quotes and whole scenes." The book made something like $6 million in 1960s money, and nobody wanted to discuss anything wrong with a money-maker like that in the publishing business." Later Years After the success of In Cold Blood, Capote's publisher re-released his earlier works. Now more sought-after than ever, Capote wrote occasional brief articles for magazines, and also entrenched himself more deeply in the world of the jet set. By the late 1970s, Capote was in and out of rehab clinics, and news of his various breakdowns frequently reached the public. In 1978, talk show host Stanley Siegal did a live on-air interview with Capote, who, in an extraordinarily intoxicated state, confessed that he might kill himself. Capote died in Los Angeles, California, on August 25, 1984, aged 59. According to the coroner's report the cause of death was "liver disease complicated by phlebitis and multiple drug intoxication." He died at the home of his old friend Joanne Carson, ex-wife of late-night TV host Johnny Carson, on whose program Capote had been a frequent guest. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, leaving behind his longtime companion, author Jack Dunphy. Dunphy died in 1992, and in 1994 both his and Capote's ashes were scattered at Crooked Pond, between Bridgehampton, New York and Sag Harbor, New York on Long Island, close to where the two had maintained a property with individual houses for many years.
Other interesting information: http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/was-holly-golightly-really-a-prostitute http://www.thereadventurer.com/-home/book-vs-movie-kelly-from-stacked-on-breakfast-at-tiffanys http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/dec/29/favourite-film-breakfast-at-tiffanys
Topics for Discussion 1. Agatha Christie wrote in her autobiography about her dislike of mysteries having a romantic subplot. Do you agree or disagree with her views? Did this book have an element of romance? 2. Is there a place that makes you feel perfectly calm and at ease like Tiffany's does for Holly? Is there a perfect place like this for everyone? 3. Can a person have too much freedom? 4. What is a home? Holly's apartment is always ready for transition. Does she really have a home? If so, what is her home? 5. The War is mentioned several times during the story. How would the story be different if it were set during a different time period? How does the war influence the story, move the plot, and affect the characters?