I am always drawn to the places where I once lived, to the houses, to the streets. There is, for example, a large dark house on one of the seventies streets of the East Side, in which I settled at the beginning of the war, when I first arrived in New York. There I had a room filled with all sorts of junk: a sofa, pot-bellied armchairs upholstered in rough red plush, at the sight of which one recalls a stuffy day in a soft carriage. The walls were painted with adhesive paint the color of tobacco chewing gum. Everywhere, even in the bathroom, hung engravings of Roman ruins, freckled with age. The only window overlooked the fire escape. But all the same, as soon as I felt for the key in my pocket, my soul became more cheerful: this housing, for all its dullness, was my first own housing, there were my books, glasses with pencils that could be repaired - in a word, everything, it seemed to me, to become a writer.
In those days it never occurred to me to write about Holly Golightly, and I probably wouldn't even now, if it weren't for a conversation with Joe Bell that stirred my memories again.
Holly Golightly lived in the same house, she rented an apartment below me. And Joe Bell ran a bar around the corner on Lexington Avenue; he still holds it. Both Holly and I went there six times, seven times a day, not to drink - not only for this - but to make phone calls: during the war it was difficult to get a phone. In addition, Joe Bell willingly ran errands, which was burdensome: Holly always had a great many of them.
Of course, this is all a long story, and until last week I had not seen Joe Bell for several years. From time to time we called each other; sometimes, when I was nearby, I went to his bar, but we were never friends, and our only friendship with Holly Golightly connected us. Joe Bell is not an easy person, he himself admits this and explains that he is a bachelor and that he has high acidity. Anyone who knows him will tell you that it is difficult to communicate with him. It's just not possible if you don't share his affections, and Holly is one of them.
Others include hockey, Weimar hunting dogs, Our Baby Sunday (a show he's been listening to for fifteen years) and Gilbert and Sullivan - he claims one of them is related to him, I don't remember who.
So when the phone rang late last Tuesday afternoon and I heard “Joe Bell speaking,” I immediately knew it was about Holly. But he only said: “Can you drop in on me? It's important,” and the croaking voice on the phone was hoarse with excitement.
In the pouring rain, I hailed a taxi and on the way I even thought, what if she is here, what if I see Holly again?
But there was no one there but the owner. Joe Bell's Bar is not a very crowded place compared to other pubs on Lexington Avenue. It boasts neither a neon sign nor a TV. In two old mirrors you can see what the weather is like outside, and behind the counter, in a niche, among photographs of hockey stars, there is always a large vase with a fresh bouquet - they are lovingly arranged by Joe Bell himself. That's what he was doing when I came in.
“You understand,” he said, lowering the gladiolus into the water, “you understand, I would not force you to drag yourself so far, but I need to know your opinion. Strange story! A very strange story happened.
- News from Holly?
He touched the paper as if considering what to say. Short, with wiry gray hair, a protruding jaw, and a bony face that would have suited a much taller man, he had always looked tanned, and now he was even more reddened.
No, not entirely from her. Rather, it is not yet clear. That is why I want to consult with you. Let me pour you. It's a new cocktail, the White Angel, he said, half-mixing vodka and gin, no vermouth.
While I drank this composition, Joe Bell stood nearby and sucked on a stomach pill, wondering what he would tell me. Finally said:
“Remember this Mr. I.Ya. Younioshi?” Gentleman from Japan?
- From California.
I remembered Mr. Yunioshi very well. He is a photographer for an illustrated magazine and at one time occupied a studio on the top floor of the house where I lived.
- Don't confuse me. Do you know what I'm talking about? Well, that's great. So, last night, this same Mr. Y. Y. Yunioshi showed up here and rolled up to the counter. I haven't seen him in probably over two years. Where do you think he's been all this time?
- In Africa.
Joe Bell stopped sucking his pill and his eyes narrowed.
– How do you know?
- So it really was.
He cracked open the cash drawer and pulled out a thick paper envelope.
“Perhaps you read that in Winchell’s too?”
There were three photographs in the envelope, more or less the same, although taken from different points: a tall, slender Negro in a cotton skirt with a shy and at the same time self-satisfied smile showed a strange wooden sculpture- an elongated head of a girl with short, smoothed hair, like a boy's, and a face tapering downwards; her polished wooden eyes, with a slanting cut, were unusually large, and her large, sharply defined mouth looked like that of a clown. At first glance, the sculpture looked like an ordinary primitive, but only at first, because it was the spitting image of Holly Golightly - if I may say so about the dark inanimate object.
- Well, what do you think about it? said Joe Bell, pleased at my confusion.
- Looks like her.
“Listen,” he slapped his hand on the counter, “this is it. It's clear as daylight. The Japanese immediately recognized her as soon as he saw her.
Did he see her? In Africa?
- Her? No, just a sculpture. What's the difference? You can read what is written here. And he turned over one of the photographs. On the back was the inscription: “Wood carving, C tribe, Tokokul, East Anglia. Christmas, 1956".
At Christmas, Mr. Younoshi drove his apparatus through Tokokul, a village lost in no one knows where, no matter where, just a dozen adobe huts with monkeys in the yards and buzzards on the roofs. He decided not to stop, but suddenly he saw a negro who was squatting at the door and carving monkeys on a cane. Mr. Yunioshi became interested and asked me to show him something else. Then a woman's head was carried out of the house, and it seemed to him - so he told Joe Bell - that it was all a dream. But when he wanted to buy it, the Negro said: "No." Not a pound of salt and ten dollars, not two pounds of salt, a watch and twenty dollars, nothing could shake him. Mr. Yunioshi decided to at least find out the origin of this sculpture, which cost him all his salt and hours. The story was told to him in a mixture of African, gibberish and the language of the deaf and dumb. In general, it turned out that in the spring of this year, three white people emerged from the thickets on horseback.
A young woman and two men. The men, trembling with chills, with feverish eyes, were forced to spend several weeks locked up in a separate hut, and the woman liked the carver, and she began to sleep on his mat.
"That's what I don't believe," Joe Bell said squeamishly. “I know she had all sorts of quirks, but she would hardly have come to that.
- And what's next?
- And then nothing. He shrugged. - She left as she came - she left on a horse.
Alone or with men?
Joe Bell blinked.
Everyone remembers the movie. More specifically, Audrey Hepburn as Holly. It is impossible not to remember this - her charm immortalized this thing. A sleepy muzzle with a mask over her eyes, or a fatal beauty in a wide-brimmed hat, famously whistling with two fingers to a taxi driver. Quietly humming Moonriver... And flooded with tears and rain, with a wet Cat in her arms at the end of the film.
And the book is different - tougher, more realistic, without a tearful rainy happy ending. And it ends much more ambiguously and strangely - and it is not even clear whether it ends at all. I confess that I prefer the book ending - ghostly, restless and mysterious, like Holly herself.
Score: 9
Audrey Hepburn is my favorite movie actress, but for some reason, I never got past half an hour of Breakfast at Tiffany's. Desperate to overcome the film adaptation, I decided to go from the other end and get acquainted with the literary source, since it is not too voluminous.
Reading impressions are rather mixed. Truman Capote is an excellent storyteller, so he deftly puts the words into a story that is as entertaining as it is dirty, in which sexual perverts, crime bosses, some kind of bohemian and near-bohemian plankton frame the fate of a good-for-nothing prostitute.
One of the previous reviewers called Holly Golightly a hetero, but this is not true. Modern European civilization does not provide for the institution of heterosexuals / geishas. If a woman is being sold for money, even if it is quite large (a hundred dollars for a one-time sex in 1943 was clearly not affordable for most of the then US population), then she is exactly that a prostitute and there is nothing to hide her occupation behind beautiful euphemisms.
Another thing is that Holly Golightly is a rather strange person. Possessing interesting appearance and with her extraordinary mind, she had many options to climb the social ladder and become a respected woman (in addition to marrying a diplomat, the possibility of a film career is mentioned, and the possibility of marriage with a homosexual millionaire was more than real), but the heroine was simply not interested. Holly didn't know what she wanted either. In his story, the author created a very convincing image of a very young woman (at the time the story began, the heroine was not even 19 years old), who, due to the cockroaches living in her beautiful head, is not able to find her place in life. The finale of such persons is usually sad: alcohol, drugs and suicide. It’s good that the heroine of the story was able to avoid such a denouement (this is not a spoiler, since at the very beginning of the work it is reported that the narrator came across a mention of Holly ten years after their separation), but not the slightest sympathy given character didn't call me. And do not talk about the difficult childhood and difficult fate heroines! Let me remind you that the time of action of the story is 1943-1944. No one needs to explain what kind of events took place then in the world. And the 1930s cannot be called an era of stability and prosperity. Hundreds of millions of people could tell such creepy stories from their lives, against which the death of their parents and marriage at fourteen look idyllic.
By by and large Holly is simply disgusting because her whole life is built around own desires. Yes, she got married due to difficult life circumstances, but as soon as she got tired of playing the role of a wife, she left without hesitation. new family leaving his beloved brother to the mercy of fate. Well, her husband turned out to be a good person and didn't throw Fred out of the house the day after she ran away, but I doubt that she even thought about such a possibility when she left for California. Or the disgusting story with O.D. The casting agent worked with her for a year preparing her for a career in Hollywood. While he was spending time and money on her, Holly did not mind, but on the eve of the decisive tests, she simply took off and flew to New York, because she suddenly realized that the film business was not for her. And the fact that because of her actions O.D. in addition to purely material expenses, she also got into trouble with the director and producers of the picture, for some reason it did not occur to her. Yes, and with the narrator Holly treated disgustingly. After all, she perfectly understood that she was not indifferent to him, but at first she pretended that she did not see his feelings, and then rejected them, because it is much more interesting to be a kept woman with Latin American moneybags than to associate herself with a young and poor (by her standards) writer.
When reading the story, it becomes obvious that the author sympathizes with his heroine. Yeah, Capote don't try to hide negative traits her nature (otherwise the whole psychological part of the work would suffer from this), however, he camouflages them in a romantic flair that Holly spreads around him. All this is quite nice, but selfishness and mental callousness the heroine makes her way through any romance.
Bottom line: surprised by the abundance of positive assessments of both the story itself and the praises addressed to the heroine. No, of course Audrey Hepburn played her just great, but with the slightest analysis it becomes obvious that a woman like Holly Golighty is not capable of becoming either a good wife or a good mother, if only because both roles require a lot of effort, and in the life of the heroine the main thing in the story was only her infinite Ego and the desire to satisfy her whims with minimal effort on her part. Relatively high rating I put exclusively writing skills Truman Capote, who was able to brilliantly present this unattractive story in such a way that even after half a century there are a lot of people who see something sublime and romantic in it.
P.S. I also didn't like the narrator. A healthy guy who hangs out without a job and mows down from the army while his country is waging a difficult (and for once just) war, could not arouse much sympathy in me. Indeed, communicating with a beautiful and eccentric prostitute is much more interesting than trampling the parade ground in the training section and much safer than cleaning up tropical islands from the evil Japanese.
Score: 7
Objectively, this work is quite good. Atmospheric, with a curious plot, written characters, and the author is very talented - he is able to convey the mood, atmosphere, character with just a couple of strokes, without spreading descriptions over hundreds of pages. However, it is almost impossible to perceive the book objectively.
It's all about the heroine around whom the plot revolves - either she seems sweet and attractive (so much so that some romantic girls take her as a role model), or she seems to be extremely disgusting empty shell. From this attitude to it depends on whether you like the book or not. I belong to the second category.
The heroine is so vile that it was very difficult for me to read this little book. To the credit of the author, he conveys the character of the heroine very reliably, but from the fact that when reading, examples from life and the thought “yes, a dozen of my friends behave in the same way!” pop up in memory, it doesn’t get any easier. This is a windy stupid person who absolutely does not care about her future or the feelings of the people who surround her. She does not become attached to anyone, treats people (especially men) as funny toys that can be thrown at any time as soon as she gets bored, and at the same time she wonders why she does not have real friends, no one takes her seriously and great pure and bright love and happiness (which she understands as an abundance of diamonds and trips to expensive restaurants) have not yet come to her. It looks like an ordinary windy fool - it seems to be nothing special. But at the same time, the author clearly admires her - she is always described as a kind of unearthly beauty creature, all the characters (even the gay protagonist) admire her charm/weirdness/beauty/unusualness, etc. Actually, because of this contradiction between how the heroine is described, how other characters perceive her, and what she is like, if you look at her actions, between my disgust for her and the admiration of the author, the book was hard for me.
Yes, we can say that the heroine had a difficult childhood (how can you not feel sorry for the poor thing!), That, choosing men, she very skillfully adapts to their characters (and she is by no means a whore - no, no, no! (but can’t a whore study the hobbies of the opposite sex in order to become a master of her craft?)) that it’s not her, but life has developed this way (and on the basis of this one should feel sorry for her) - and in general, fans of the book and Holly will find thousands of excuses for your pet. But it doesn't make her any better. Or worse. The author superbly, in detail, prescribed her character and behavior, and then everything depends on who will read it. Either you like this type of woman - and then the book will surely become one of your favorite or at least memorable, or you will consider her a vile person who is not worth so close attention- and then it is not necessary to torture the book. As I did after looking at the reviews about " great finale”, which is not there - the narrative simply breaks off. Not really interesting place, and not on a boring one - it's just that Holly was there, but now she has disappeared. The plot is not the most important thing in the book. It is clearly written in order to describe the character of this woman, and everything else (including the fate of the protagonist, who here plays the role of an observer without character and purpose) is of no importance to the author.
Rating: 1
In fact, it doesn’t matter what you did before - you watched a movie or read a book, because only what is better done will become your guiding star in grading a work. Unfortunately, it is impossible to rate books without their film adaptations, especially if the film adaptations outshine the books themselves in popularity. I was lucky in this regard - I did not watch the film. My rating will be only in favor of the book.
If you take Ray's work Bradbury and the work of Edgar L. Doctorow, it turns out, oddly enough, Truman Capote. What I mean is that everything magical, everything inexplicably wonderful, piercing that Bradbury has, and everything sharp, frank, serious that Doctorow has, is combined here, and being familiar with the named authors, you can imagine what woven works of Capote. There is some momentaryness in them, immortalized by the unknown magical powers, and softness, and everything explaining human weakness, and humor… Tonally, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” intersects with some things by Roald Dahl, but the humor here is rather sad, soaked in rain and cognac… In general, this is a very realistic thing, but magic envelops it. aspirations main character to be herself and her search for peace and comfort touches her to the core, and the attempts of the hero in love with her to help her in this inspire hope that she will succeed. The atmosphere of the book is such that you don’t know who to sympathize with more - the hero, the heroine, or the very time in which these heroes lived, when there was a war and everyone tried to escape from it in their own ways.
If you say it's a bad book, then you don't know anything about literature.
Score: 10
The book corresponds to the film adaptation, and the film adaptation corresponds to the book. The only discrepancy is in the final scene with the cat and the hugging heroes in the car.
But! the film adaptation is such that it does not give 100% certainty that after 15 minutes Holly did not change into another taxi and did not leave for the unknown.
Many girls, much more than guys, write in reviews of the book and film that the heroine leads an immoral lifestyle, a silly woman, a dummy, and so on. From words alone and ways of formulating sentences, an understanding physiognomy collapses. what to do with the perception of a text or film language, as well as banal observation, you cannot teach without good (sometimes violent) coaching.
Why is the story attractive? The fact that it is short, rather restrained, chaste, despite the described "lewdness", more precisely the "immoral lifestyle of the heroine", a very pleasant simple language of presentation, and at the same time - this is what delights me, at the same time one or two phrases added after the proper description of the weather or season or something else, said in the same everyday, non-committal tone, and so much information!
For example, there are two references to a dozen or one and a half books on horses and dogs, that Holly only read magazines and collected newspaper clippings about millionaires. But. firstly, how accurate and deep her judgments about certain events, types or people are. And here is the solution - Holly was only given an impetus at one time, and then she "made" herself. In the words of Alexander Green - Holly Golightly invented herself! Yes, she sat in public libraries in the evenings and studied books on etiquette or architecture, or about the Mediterranean climate ... Yes, men liked her, but because she subtly studied their psychology, taking into service the simple advice of psychologists and, most importantly, she knew for sure subject of discussion with the intended "victim". Yes, for God's sake, if for the sake of getting to know the stock market tycoon, Holly begins to study financial law and the wisdom of playing on the stock exchange - that's great! Let it be so, the main thing is not the motive for what purpose she studies, but she really conscientiously studies what interests her “clients”, the main thing is that she, like the heroine of O. Henry’s story “The Burning Lamp”, realizes that she needs knowledge and strives to get him, if not in privileged colleges, then at least in the ready-made linen store. The main thing is that a person strives to learn and in the end, she realizes that there is another goal than material security.
And how Holly flexibly adapts to a completely different types men! No, she will not betray herself and her principles, she will not call the police because of a brawler who intends to "get his own", although no one specifically promised him anything, after all, she is not a prostitute, but something like a hetaera or a geisha, a girl for pleasant secular parties, for sex, go to a brothel or gateway. She will not live with a person who is completely unpleasant to her, like the millionaire Trawler. She will not sue you, she will not chase you with a rolling pin or call the neighbors to publicly slander, curse or swear at you.
It is correct and tactful enough to capture your expectations and your mood to lead you to celebrate the first free publication of your story. And, simultaneously with this sophistication, one or two phrases are suddenly screwed in that "sometimes I steal little things so as not to lose the skill." Or "I'm cold, only Fred allowed me to bask next to him." Then the attentive reader will see an explanation for these strange words - "they were left orphans and they had to steal their own food in the gardens." Or this wonderful observation: like all people who willingly and talk a lot about themselves, she preferred not to answer direct questions. Or "stupid to be more comfortable."
Dozens of the smallest gestures, remarks, subtle observations - and all just in such small volume! Spoken in a slightly distracted casual tone. The heroine seems to be sliding through life, avoiding contact with rudeness and unreliable self-deception. She is indeed a realist, but a realist who has not fallen into cynical vulgarity like Rhett Butler. She tends to avoid strong attachments and deep emotions, because they answer her far from the same. When she was at a ball at a tender and trusting age, she was first presented with one false story, or a fairy tale. About how great it is to be a wife loving man"with experience". Then she discovered the other side of life. It turns out that it was used as a thing, and it is impossible not to give an appropriate analogy in Russian literature and cinema. The story of the "dowryless" Larisa Ogudalova is almost the same repetition of the Lulamey story, only Larisa stopped her own death from the hand of a petty, ambitious man.
Truman's story is so good because it avoids gloomy naturalistic details and tragic plot twists, Lulamei survived, changed a little, but still adapted to protect herself.
Remember the rose that was proud of its three thorns? This one is Holly Golightly, the man who invented a new name for himself, new life and a new happy "past", about which she "told" the narrator, who invented a stage image and demeanor for herself, but who, nevertheless, always remained herself inside, a little frightened, half-starved girl from a farm, whose relatives are truly disinterested only brother remained friends. Who herself had to take care of herself and her brother. How hard it is to realize. that you are dependent on people whom you considered really kind, but in fact they used you not only for material benefits, but also to satisfy their physical needs.
___ "His cold eyes dissected me, making neat test cuts" - with these words everything is written ...
This same Holly Galightly is really quite entertaining. How? The utmost clarity of thoughts, honesty before oneself, a razor-sharp tongue and good nature at the same time.
And he? And in it - all the features and qualities of Truman Capote himself. It is no coincidence that even the hero's birthday is September 30, and he is a young aspiring writer with all the signs of the author's biography.
She is 19, he is 20. And this is important. All life ahead.
I got the feeling that this is such a feminine version of The Great Gatsby.
P.S. As for the movie, it's nice, maybe even good. And Audrey Hepburn is lovely.
Only there all the accents are shifted so much that common sense changes exactly the opposite (and the heroes are clearly already in their thirties).
In the book, She is a clever intellectual, in the movie, she is a pompous, charming fool.
That rare case when the film supplemented and enriched the book. They are equal and beautiful both!
Writers George Axelrod , Truman Capote Artists Roland Anderson , Hal Pereira , Sam Comer , more
Do you know that
- The budget of this comedy melodrama reached two and a half million dollars, but it more than paid off, because the fees in America alone amounted to 8 million dollars.
- The film in 1962 received several awards and was nominated for the Directors Guild of USA, Grammy, Golden Globe and others. And for the song moon river”, created by composer Henry Mancini, lyricist Johnny Mercer and performed by actress Audrey Hepburn, the picture was awarded an Oscar.
- This legendary melodrama has become a film adaptation novel of the same name written by Truman Capote in 1958.
- Initially, John Frankenheimer was going to shoot the film, and the performer leading role was supposed to be Marilyn Monroe.
- The heroine Audrey Hepburn repeatedly appears in the frame in the famous little black dress, which was personally created by Hubert de Givenchy. Forty years later, it was bought in London at an auction for 807 thousand dollars. It has become one of the most expensive movie items ever sold.
- Steve McQueen turned down the male lead because he was filming Wanted Dead or Alive at the time.
- The scene at the beginning of the film, when Holly walks alone through New York, and then looks into the Tiffany store, was actually filmed surrounded by a crowd of people. This distracted the actress, she could not concentrate, as a result, this small episode took a lot of takes.
- Audrey Hepburn's fee for filming this movie was $ 750,000, making the actress the highest paid at that time.
- Especially for filming, for the first time since the nineteenth century, a Tiffany & Co store opened on Sunday.
- As the tailed performer of the role of Kat, nine cats participated in the entire film.
- According to Audrey Hepburn, the most unpleasant episode in the entire film was for her the episode where she had to throw the cat out onto a rainy, dirty street.
More facts (+8)
Mistakes in the movie
- When Holly throws the cat off the dressing table in anger, it flies to the floor, but in the next frame it hits the window.
- Throughout the film, you can see how the colors and breed of cats change.
- When Holly puts on nylon stockings in a taxi at the end of the film, an arrow is visible on her left leg, but in another episode the defect disappears.
- The main character allegedly learns the Brazilian language, although the voice on the record speaks Portuguese.
- Paul dances in tandem with an elderly woman, in whose hands we immediately see a yellow cup, and in the next frame it turns pink.
- When Golightly and Mr. Pereira return from lunch, he brings a banderilla (Spanish, not a Brazilian attribute) and says "Ole".
- According to the scenario, Paul's apartment is on the third floor, but when he returns home, he opens the door on the first.
- The cigarette in Holly's hand as she watches the stripper changes position.
- After Golightly enters Paul's bedroom through the window, stockings appear on her legs.
- The watch on Paul's right wrist, when he lies in bed, then disappears, then appears again.
- At the party, the main character's hairstyle changes to different angles: at first, a few strands of highlights are noticeable, and then they disappear and it is noticeable that the hair is styled differently.
- When Holly and Paul are in the taxi, the street in the background has four lanes and appears wide. But when the car stops in the following episodes, the street becomes narrow.
More bugs (+9)
Plot
Beware, the text may contain spoilers!
The events of this comedy melodrama are developing in New York. Pretty young Holly Golightly spends her time carefree, changing outfits and having fun with men. She's a bit weird as she constantly goes out the window, daydreams about expensive Tiffany & Co jewelry, hides her phone in her suitcase, loses her keys, and can't name her cat. The girl dreams of a rich groom who will satisfy all her needs.
One day, a charming neighbor appears in the apartment on the floor above - the writer Paul Varzhak. He is an attractive stately man in an expensive suit and with a dazzling smile, so at first sight he sunk into Holly's soul. But living on the money of a rich mistress, the young man is not able to fulfill all the desires of the heroine. After all beautiful clothes and precious jewelry is beyond the reach of a new boyfriend.
Chatty Golightly comes to visit in the evenings, climbing in through the window. At first, Paul was surprised at the antics of a neighbor who constantly loses things and confuses names, but then romantic relationship. The main character is a very freedom-loving person who is not used to taking things seriously. love affairs and does not want to belong to anyone but herself.
So, Holly, after a scandal with her chosen one, throws the cat out into the street and is going to fly to Brazil in order to find a rich husband there. Paul is determined and does not want to let go of his beloved. As a result, the girl reconsidered her views on life, picked up a cat and stayed with Varzhak.
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" summary You can read in 10 minutes. "Breakfast at Tiffany's" the plot of the book is familiar to many thanks to the film of the same name.
"Breakfast at Tiffany's" summary
"Breakfast at Tiffany's"- short story American writer Truman Capote.
Breakfast at Tiffany's tells of a long-standing friendship between a New York writer who is never named and his neighbor Holly Golightly. The story is presented as a writer's memoir about twelve years after the friendship.
The narrator reveals that he lived on the same floor as Holly more than ten years ago. Shortly after he drove in, he notices Holly late summer night when she loses her house key and calls another tenant, Mr. Yunioshi, to let her into the building, causing the latter to freak out. Mr Yunioshi describes her as being 19 years old, skinny and gorgeous dressed girl with a boyish haircut. When Holly starts calling the author to let her into the building late at night, he is intrigued. He enjoys watching Holly at trendy restaurants and nightclubs around town and often watches her feed her unnamed cat or play country songs on her guitar from a fire escape window. He even draws attention to her garbage, which contains numerous Love letters from soldiers.
In September, Holly visits the narrator's apartment in the middle of the night when one of her lovers offends her. In the conversation, the author learns that Holly has a weekly visit from Sally Tomato, a notorious gangster who is imprisoned by Sing Sing. Lawyer Tomato O'Shaughnessy pays Holly $100 for a visit to relay "weather reports" - encrypted messages - between the two men. The narrator reads Holly one of his short stories, which she finds uninteresting, and they fall asleep on his bed. But she leaves when he asks why she cries in her sleep.
Holly and the author soon reconcile, and she invites him to a party at her apartment. There, the narrator meets Mr. Berman, a Hollywood agent who tells the story of his failed attempts make Holly a teen movie star. The narrator also meets with Rusty Trawler, a millionaire who appears to be having an affair with Holly. The author also interacts with Meg Wildwood, an eccentric model who, in a state of intoxication, insults Holly, and then throws her up on the living room floor. The author continues to watch Holly from afar. He takes notice when Meg moves into Holly's apartment and often sees the two women leaving the apartment in the evenings, accompanied by Rusty Trawler and José Iberra-Jegar, the Brazilian politician to whom Meg is engaged.
Holly and author Once again reconcile when he shares the exciting news with her that his first short story was published. Although she thinks he should be more commercially ambitious as a writer, she invites him to the celebration nonetheless. They spend the day in Central Park, where they exchange stories about their childhood, the author remarks that Holly's story is fiction. They later stole Halloween masks from Woolworth's.
Shortly thereafter, the narrator sees Holly enter public library. As he follows her, he notices that she is interested in books about Brazilian politics and geography. Despite the deceptions and secrets that affect Holly's relationship with others, the author becomes close friends with her. On Christmas Eve, the narrator and Holly exchange gifts: he gives her a St. Christopher medal from her favorite New York store, Tiffany, and she gives him an antique birdcage he admires, making him promise that he will never use it. to put a "living being" there.
Things go wrong for Holly in February when Meg suspects that Holly had a relationship with José during a group trip to Florida. Upon her return, she and the author argue, as she claims that what he writes "means nothing" and no one wants. Defending his artistic integrity and offended by Holly's crude commercialism, the author doesn't speak to Holly until late spring. His affection for him ex girlfriend returns after the arrival of Doc Golightly. Doc Golightly asks the author for help finding Holly and reveals that he is Holly's husband. He tells the author the story of his marriage in Tulip, Texas, which happened when Holly was only fourteen. She and her brother Fred ran away from the abusive foster family they were placed with after their parents' deaths. Doc also informs the author that Holly's real name is Lulameh Barnes, and that she ran away from Doc and his family despite his willingness to indulge her often expensive demands. The author wants to help reunite Doc and Holly, but Doc returns to Texas the next morning.
When the narrator reads that Rusty Trawler has married Meg Wildwood, he races home to tell Holly. He hears noise from Holly's apartment, sound broken glass. Joining José and the doctor, the author enters her apartment and sees Holly in a rage and heartbroken. José tells the author that Holly received a telegram that morning informing her of the death of her brother Fred in the war. Over the next few months, the author watches Holly turn into a homebody, her romance with José dominating her life. She furnishes her apartment, learns to cook and gains weight. During one of her dinners, Holly confesses to the author that she is pregnant and that she is going to marry José and live with him in Brazil. This desire becomes a reality, and on September 30, the author is saddened to learn that Holly is leaving for Brazil next week. She invites him to ride with her on horseback through Central Park. The couple are enjoying their ride when the author's horse is deliberately scared by a group of young boys. A horse jumps wildly onto a road in New York. Holly and a mounted cop calm his horse and rescue the author. The author is shocked. Holly returns with him to her apartment and bathes him.
However, they are soon interrupted by an intrusion by their neighbor Saphia Spanella, who is escorted by two policemen. Officers arrest Holly on charges of conspiring with Sally Tomato and O'Shaughnessy. The arrest is published in all the main documents and all her friends, powerful friends, do not want to help her and have nothing to do with her. Only Berman hires the best lawyer for her defense. The author visits Holly in the hospital, where she is recovering from a miscarriage caused by her vigorous horseback riding on the day of her arrest. He brings her a letter from José, in which José notifies her that, due to his political reputation, he does not wish to continue a relationship with her. A frustrated Holly confesses to the author that she plans to drop her bail and run away to Brazil. She asks the author to help her escape.
On Saturday, the author collects some of Holly's things, her cat, and brings them to Joe's bar, where Holly is waiting. Joe calls a taxi and the author accompanies Holly on the trip. She asks the driver to stop in Spanish Harlem, where she leaves her cat on the street. The author criticizes Holly, who soon jumps out of a taxi on the run to find a cat, but can't find it anywhere. The author promises Holly that he will return to the neighborhood to find the cat, and Holly leaves. While the authorities trace Holly's flight to Rio, Sally Tomato dies in Sing Sing, making the accusation against Holly meaningless. Apart from receiving one postcard from Buenos Aires, the author never heard from Holly again. However, having kept his promise, he finds Holly the cat, and the cat now lives safely in his apartment in Spanish Harlem.
Holly Golightly introduces herself to everyone as a traveler. Indeed, the apartment she rents in one of the ordinary houses in New York is almost empty, things are packed - than not traveling! No one suspects that her travels are limited only to different outskirts of the same city, that this is not even travel, but an attempt by a naive provincial woman to escape from true peace. From a world that requires you to adapt to it and with which she has to find a compromise, reluctantly going against her will and beliefs. Although Holly could train herself to love anyone and believed that everyone could do that, however, this did not spoil her soul, did not kill her ability to sympathize, show affection and trust in people who showed genuine interest in her.
Holly truly travels in her memories, in her dreams. She runs away from melancholy, despite external fun, in search of real human happiness. And here, travel is not limited to one city. Sometimes these are trips to Texas - to the past, from which only sad songs and Doc Golightly remained, this strange and kind "horse doctor" who felt sorry for everyone and out of pity married thirteen-year-old Holly.
Sometimes - "journey" to Mexico, where, as soon as the war is over, she will settle with her brother on the seashore and breed horses. And sometimes it’s just a fictional trip to an expensive cafe where everything is so solid and solemn that you can forget for a moment what stage of society you really are at and believe that it’s not at all necessary to marry a millionaire for breakfast at Tiffany’s.
The common thing that can be traced in all dreams is the thirst for a quiet life, ordinary happiness. But these dreams do not come true. The theme of the gap between the dream and reality of the main character runs like a red thread through the whole story. Holly's whole life seems to be a chain of states from joy to hopelessness. As soon as the next dream absorbs it, promising to come true just about, the gray destructive reality comes. Thus, the girl is constantly tested “for strength”, undermines her belief that the world is beautiful and a person is kind, and everything about the negative that she has to face is just an exception to the rule.
Holly says that salvation lies in being honest with yourself and with other people. In fact, this "Code of Honor" did not help the girl. Her life, most likely, will remain as uncertain as the end of the story, which at the very beginning promised to be ironic and easy, but ended quite dramatically, even hopelessly.
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