Breakfast at
Tiffany's is a novella
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 the novella,
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. A major motion
film, based on the novella and starring Audrey Hepburn, was released in 1961.
