Breakfast at Tiffany's
by Truman Capote
Summary
An unnamed writer recalls his fascination with Holly Golightly, his free spirited, socially adrift neighbor in wartime New York who supports herself through the generosity of admirers while dreaming of a life as untethered and glamorous as the Tiffany's window displays she loves. Capote captures Holly's mixture of vulnerability and self invention with a light, glittering prose style that never loses sight of the loneliness underneath her performance. The novella became one of his most beloved works and later inspired a classic film adaptation.
Historical Context & Significance
The 1959 National Book Award for fiction went to Bernard Malamud's story collection The Magic Barrel instead. Capote would not achieve his greatest critical triumph until years later with In Cold Blood, a work of nonfiction that similarly received no major fiction prize since it fell outside that category.