Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories (Modern Library)

by Truman Capote
Breakfast at Tiffany's: A Short Novel and Three Stories (Modern Library)
book data
9,232 ratings, 3.90 average rating, 905 reviews (more data...)
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published
January 13th 1994 (first published 1958) by Modern Library

binding
Hardcover, 176 pages

characters

setting
The United States

isbn
067960085X    (isbn13: 9780679600855)

description
In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Truman Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the liter...more




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Jessica
bookshelves: read-in-2007
Read in January, 2007
Holiday Golightly. She’s quirky, comical, and glamorous. She’s fashionable, in-the-know, and in-the-now. She’s lonely, lost, and waiting to be rescued. You couldn’t resist her charm if you tried, and you can’t help but fall in love with her.

Well, at least in the Hollywood film version. Capote’s original novella paints a darker portrait of Miss Golightly. Unlike Audrey Hepburn’s adorable Holly, who needs a knight in slightly-rusted armor to save her, Capote’s girl is ...more
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Josh
02/13/08
Josh rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0679745653)

Read in February, 2008
recommends it for: Everyone
I'll admit the truth that this is the first "classic" I have read, and right now the only. I'm truly not a person that can read anything, so the fact that I finished this novella proves it is something worth reading. The actual story of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" I read from beginning to end in one sitting, sipping on my bottomless cup of coffee. This is not an amazing feat due to it's skimpy 103 page-span, but the way the story captured me amazes me still since as i mention...more
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Madeline
This is getting shelved under "The Movie is Better" but honestly, I can't decide which version I prefer. Because I am indecisive, let's make lists.

Reasons The Movie Is Better:
-Audrey Hepburn plays a considerably less racist and foul-mouthed Holly, which is nice. But let's be honest: Holly could spend the entire movie snorting crack off a sidewalk and Audrey Hepburn would make it the most elegant and classy crack-snorting anyone had ever seen.
-Holly actually set...more
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Kristin
Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in September, 2007
I liked this book quite a bit better the second time around. Holly Golightly got on my nerves before because of her easy existence, the way she depended on others, particularly unattractive older men, for money, etc. But, this time, I think I understood her more. She reminds me, in personality, not actions, of a friend of mine and I finally get it, get her. I guess I'm also bothered by men being attracted to this type of flighty, possibly bright but wholly uneducated woman. If you're smart,...more
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Lavinia
bookshelves: 2009, ebooks, fiction
Read in February, 2009
I've seen the film (which is excellent, if you ask me) quite many times so I wasn't exactly blown by the book. But I loved it anyway.

***
The instant she saw the letter she squinted her eyes and bent her lips in a tough tiny smile that advanced her age immeasurably. "Darling," she instructed me, "would you reach in the drawer there and give me my purse. A girl doesn't read this sort of thing without her lipstick."
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Beckie
04/02/08
Beckie rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2008
I wanted to read 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' to understand how the man who wrote 'In Cold Blood' could have authored the basis for the Audrey Hepburn movie.

Here's the short answer: the novella is nothing like the film. There are certain plot points in common, and the character of Holly Golightly, and even a few strands of dialogue. But the relationship between 'Breakfast at Tiffany's', the story, and 'Breakfast at Tiffany's,' the movie is roughly that between 'The Little Mermaid,' the H...more
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Peter
Read in November, 2007
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a natural partner text for The Great Gatsby; it is full of wealthy, careless people, and at least one character is a country bumpkin transplanted into the bright lights of New York City.

Really, the novella is a character sketch. It’s a character sketch the same way One Hour Photo, the film with Robin Williams, is a character sketch. There are slippery little mysteries that unfold in both, but the mysteries are just excuses to talk about the central cha...more
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Alison
10/28/07
Alison rated it: 5 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0679745653)

Read in November, 2007
recommends it for: manhattanites, writers, searchers
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Endah
03/04/09
Endah rated it: 3 of 5 stars (review of other edition)

Read in March, 2009
Biasanya, “peraturan”-ku adalah: baca bukunya dulu baru kemudian menonton filmnya, karena jika sebaliknya, maka imajinasiku jadi terbatas. Aku akan terkungkung oleh ingatan kepada filmnya selama membaca bukunya. Dan itu sebuah situasi yang sangat tidak nikmat dalam membaca buku.

Namun, sayangnya aku tidak selalu bisa mematuhi peraturanku sendiri itu. Banyak faktor yang menyebabkannya. Salah satunya misalnya lantaran buku terjemahannya terbit lama setelah filmnya dibuat. Ya, seben...more
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Evan
03/02/09
Evan rated it: 2 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0141182792)

Read in March, 2009
As of this writing I still haven't read "In Cold Blood." It sits poised and ready on the stack as it has for months. In the interim I let my sister borrow it and she read and enjoyed it. But I realized that, other than a few short pieces, I haven't really read any true novels by Tru. And barring getting to his most famous book, I thought I might give this short and very famous story a go. I happened to again see the episode of Seinfeld where George joins a reading group to impress a gi...more
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snackywombat (v.m.)
05/17/08
snackywombat (v.m.) rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2008
recommended to snackywombat by: Fans of Capote's short stories
Aw, I loved this book. Of course I've seen the movie and it's one of my favorites, but the book is so much more layered and darker. This is really Capote at his endearingly detailed and socially sardonic best. He excels at creating fully-fleshed and idiosynchratic characters-- he's a portrait artist, really. The narration of Holly Golightly's story through the lens Paul (or "Fred" as Holly calls him), a struggling writer perhaps less like a Capote than a John Cheever, sets Holly's char...more
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Jonathan
bookshelves: 11thgradebooksread
Read in September, 2007
Breakfast at Tiffany's was a book my father borrowed for me. I wanted to read something that was good and somewhat of a classic. Breakfast at Tiffany's fits this. The book is written in a very simple manner. There is few hard words to comprehend and the style flows nicely. Truman Capote is a good writer and has written books that I have read, including In Cold Blood. I find that the story plot is surprisely simple too.
It is about a young man who is unable to get a grasp on li...more
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Alison
08/14/07
Alison rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0679745653)

Read in January, 2004
I am an avid (obsessive?) devotee of Breakfast at Tiffany's, the movie. I love Audrey, I love Mancini, I love orange cats and New York and parties and little black dresses. So I was a little apprehensive about reading the book, as I knew it was considerably different than the film, and I was afraid it might retroactively taint it somehow. But then someone gave me a copy, and I just couldn't resist. Before going in, though, I resolved to treat the book and film as two different but related entiti...more
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Ririenz
03/25/09
Ririenz rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: sastra-modern
Read in January, 2009
BREAKFAST at TIFFANY’s
Truman Capote

Gratisan….
Beruntungnya Aq dapat doorprise buku sewaktu ada acara diskusi Breakfast at Tiffany’s di NewSeum Café hari selasa sore minggu lalu.

Don’t wanna sleep, Don’t wanna die,
just wanna go a travellin trought the pastures of the sky
(tak ingin tidur, tak ingin mati hanya ingin berkalana di hamparan langit)

Dalam novel di jelaskan bahwa lagu inilah yang sering dinyanyikan oleh Holly sambil...more
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Paul
01/17/09
Paul rated it: 4 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0679745653)

Read in February, 2008
Truman Capote's novella differs significantly from the great movie that was based on it. I first saw the movie in my late adolescence, and it's the characteristics and insecurities of that stage in life that the book and the movie reflect.

The two main characters are outsiders. They are Holly Golightly ('Traveling' her card says) and the nameless narrator. Unlike the movie, there's no romantic tie between the two. Their connection is an asexual friendship, which facilitates viewing th...more
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Antof9
12/02/08
Antof9 rated it: 2 of 5 stars (review of isbn 0679745653)

bookshelves: 2008-read, unfulfilling
Read in January, 2008
So this ended up being my first "read" of 2008. Actually, I started it in 2007, had 12 people to my house for Christmas, and finished it in 2008 :)

So. I have to say that I've known of this book forever. And I think, in some back corner of my mind, I always knew it was by Truman Capote. What I couldn't reconcile in my head was Audrey Hepburn, the previously-read In Cold Blood, the Robin's Egg blue of Tiffany, and the title of this book. Not to mention Deep Blue Somethin...more
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Christina
Read in May, 2008
recommended to Christina by: Mrs. Moncrief
For a final test grade in my English class this year, my teacher read us Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Truman Capote.

{For the sake of this review, and the fact that it was read to us so I don’t have my own copy at hand, I’ve included my review from class. Therefore the summary is mixed in.}

In an Upper East Side brownstone and the surrounding neighborhood in New York City, we meet Holly Golightly and the people in her life, a small group of characters that form the basis...more
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Shonali
Read in June, 2009
"I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it's like.... It's like Tiffany's.... Not that I give a hoot about jewelry. Diamonds, yes. But it's tacky to wear diamonds before you're forty... "

Now when Holly Golightly says this, you believe her. As much as you think she is lying about her past life , you have to believe her . You believe her sincerest desire to ...more
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Ben
05/12/09
Ben rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2009
This book is as lively and colorful as ever. I only pray it doesn't suffer too terribly from the insipid movie version. All the amazing narrative devices--the risque dialogue, the neurotic characters, the unresolvable resolution, and the consummate loser point of view--were sucked right out of the screenplay: mostly by right of Hollywood conventions.

Nevertheless, this book merits serious consideration not only as a romance but as a towering expression of Americaness as well as a ...more
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Katie
05/26/09
Katie rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in May, 2009
As much as I was enamored with Capote's words and style of writing, I was put off by Breakfast at Tiffany's a bit. I really just couldn't stand the Holly Golightly character--she's just the sort of New York wannabe I try to avoid in this city. And yeah, I know she's lost, she's a searcher, she's afraid despite her facade of wit and charm, but I just didn't find her appealing. Now, I don't think you have to find her appealing to like the book--she's supposed to be flawed--but it was just a bit gr...more
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quotes from this book

"I knew damn well I would never be a movie star. It's too hard; and if you are intelligent, it's too embarrassing. My complexes aren't inferior enough: being a movie star and having a big fat ego are supposed to go hand-in-hand; actually, it's essential not to have any ego at all. I don't mean I'd mind being rich and famous. That's very much on my schedule, and someday I'll try and get around to it; but if it happens, I'd like to have my ego, tagging along. I want to still be me when I wake up one fine morning and have breakfast at Tiffany's." More quotes...


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