Breakfast at Tiffany’s: A Short Novel and Three Stories was published by Random House, New York, on 27 October 1958, in a first printing of approximately 10,000 copies priced at $3.95. The title novella had appeared in Esquire magazine the previous month. The volume also contains three stories: “House of Flowers,” “A Diamond Guitar,” and “A Christmas Memory” — the last of which is one of the most beloved American short stories of the twentieth century.
The Novella
Breakfast at Tiffany’s is narrated by an unnamed young writer (transparently modelled on Capote himself) who lives in a New York brownstone next door to Holly Golightly — a nineteen-year-old woman of mysterious origins who has reinvented herself as a Manhattan socialite. Holly — christened Lula Mae Barnes in rural Texas, a child bride who ran away to New York — lives by her wits, her beauty, and the generosity of wealthy men she calls “rats” and “super-rats.” She keeps a cat she refuses to name (“I’m not going to tie myself to any living thing”) and makes weekly visits to Tiffany’s to calm her nerves (“nothing very bad could happen to you there”).
Holly Golightly is one of the great literary characters of the twentieth century — a figure who transcends her novella to become a cultural icon. She is free, fearless, funny, and damaged: beneath the cocktail-party bravado lies the terror of a girl who has been abandoned, exploited, and forced to survive by her charm alone. Capote’s achievement is to render this complexity in a voice of seemingly effortless lightness. The novella reads like champagne; its aftereffect is closer to heartbreak.
The novella’s sexual frankness — Holly’s life as a kept woman, her pregnancy, the implied bisexuality of the narrator — was daring for 1958, and Harper’s Bazaar, which had originally commissioned the piece, rejected it as too risqué. The subsequent film adaptation (1961), starring Audrey Hepburn, softened the character considerably — removing her sexual candour and providing a romantic ending that Capote despised.
Publication History and Collecting
First edition (1958, Random House): Approximately 10,000 copies, priced at $3.95.
Identification points:
- “First Printing” on the copyright page
- Random House colophon on the title page
- The dust jacket is yellow with a stylised illustration of a woman
- Price of $3.95 on the front flap
First edition, first printing:
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $4,000–$12,000
- Near Fine in jacket: $2,000–$4,000
- Without jacket: $300–$700
Signed copies: Capote signed and inscribed with some regularity — he was gregarious, social, and enjoyed his celebrity. Signed first editions bring $8,000–$20,000. Inscribed copies to notable figures command higher prices.
Esquire magazine (November 1958): The first published appearance of the novella. Clean copies are collected at $100–$300.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2× for fine copies in jacket. The novella’s iconic status, boosted by the enduring popularity of the Hepburn film, sustains steady demand.
The yellow dust jacket is prone to fading, particularly along the spine. Copies with bright, unfaded jackets command premiums. The book’s slim profile (179 pages) means that even slight damage to the spine or boards is visible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the film faithful to the novella? No. The 1961 film, while charming, fundamentally alters Holly Golightly’s character — removing her sexual frankness and providing a romantic resolution that Capote explicitly rejected. Capote wanted Marilyn Monroe for the role and disliked Hepburn’s performance.
What is “A Christmas Memory”? The final story in the collection, a memoir-in-fiction about a boy’s friendship with an elderly cousin in rural Alabama. It is one of Capote’s most famous and most anthologised works, and its inclusion adds significant value to the collection.