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Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

I just finished the novella and I was very surprised that:

 

Holly married Doc at 14

Holly is bisexual

In the novella she gets pregnant by Jose but loses the baby

 

Holly does abandon Cat and the narrator finds him

 

I think the novella is perfect and the film is perfect.  I thought I had read it already but obviously not and yes, the changes were surprising. 

 

Maybe the middle two they couldn't show back then in a movie?  I found it very interesting she married Doc at 14.  As for abandoning Cat, it makes more sense -- but it's not a happy thing; they've taken the cruelty out of her for the movie.

 

What do you think?  

 

*****************

 

Trivia:  In 2017 a certain Tiffany's did in fact start serving breakfast.  Sounds like a tourist trap -- prixe fix at $29.  

 

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

[ Edited ]

@LoriLori

 

I read the novella l-o-n-g ago, probably right after I originally saw the movie.  I remember being disappointed because the "feeling" of the novella was so different (and more disgusting) from that of the movie.  Of course, the big draw of the movie for me was the sheer pleasure of watching and listening to Audrey Hepburn and seeing her wear beautiful clothes.  At the bottom of it all, though, the actual plot and characters are pretty seedy. 

 

Wryly, one of the Ladies Groups in our church recently gave a wedding shower with a "Breakfast at Tiffany's" theme -- black dresses, white gloves, jewels.  I couldn't help but wonder if any of them had ever actually realized what kind of characters they were emulating......

 

ETA -- have you read any books about the impact of the movie and the controversies it generated at the time?  I have a couple in my collection -- I'll look up the titles if you're interested.

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

@Honeybit  thanks!  I'm on punishment for book buying now LOL but can you tell me some of it?  And yes, a few titles I can put on my "saved" list on Amazon when I make headway in my now three shelves of TBR books.  

 

I didn't even mention the last we know of Holly in the novella is from Joe Bell to the narrator:  she had arrived in Africa with two gentleman who took ill and she was sleeping with a tribesman (this after using bad slurs earlier) who carved her and Mr. Funioji, in Africa to photograph it, saw them and bought them and photographed them.

 

I don't like to say degenerate because times have changed but I'm okay with sleazy -- she was such a sleaze!   I wasn't born when it was published and I was very surprised at it all.  Lolita is satire and they dragged Nabokov through a whole lot of trouble for it.

 

That's so ironic about the church groups.  I agree they couldn't have understood the characters!

 

 

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

@Honeybit  @x Hedge

 

I just finished it this morning...And as I sit here, it's not sitting well with me at all...Apologies, Honeybit.  I agree,with your characterization of her as a degenerate;; she is quite the degenerate.

 

How did they take this sleazy woman and turn her into the beloved Holly of Audrey Hepburn?   Some of the elements are right in front of us but Audrey Hepburn is so charming  

 

Ironic the movie ends with her going after Cat in the rain considering in the novella she dumped him out without a second thought.  I've always loved hte movie but not sure I want to see it again.

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

[ Edited ]

The movie is so unlike the book!. . .I almost don't know how they can leave the title intact.

 

(By the way, I love Truman Capote: his works are brilliant.)

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

[ Edited ]

@LoriLori  I always felt there was something too cutesy (unrealistic?) about the movie.  I do love Audrey Hepburn, but she was not exactly a role model in the movie.  I'm glad you posted this about the book.  I would never have known. 

 

You're never going to see the movie again (me neither) and I'm never, ever, ever going to read the book, lol.    

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

I never read the novella but did enjoy the movie.

The script, acting, and chemistry between the portrayals of the  characters made it appealing.

However, although Paul (Peppard) had his own ethical issues, I always thought Holly (Audrey) was selfish, and self centered. I felt sorry for the people around her who did like her, and Paul who loved her.

At the end of the movie when she threw Cat out of the cab I hated her. I would have disliked Peppard if he did not go after the cat. Although she did go back to look for Paul and Cat and they found Cat, I always thought she settled and did not know how to really love.

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers


@insomniac2 wrote:

The movie is so unlike the book!. . .I almost don't know how they can leave the title intact.

 

(By the way, I love Truman Capote: his works are brilliant.)


 

@insomniac2  I love his juicy later work, when he was the darling of NYC society (not Real Housewives-type society; real society, the upper echelons), everyone's plus-one because the husbands knew he was gay and were happy to have him around their wives...

 

But I've already expressed my displeasure with "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and now I've read the other three stories which leaves "A Christmas Memory" which is what brought me to the book. 

 

The second story, "House of Flowers," is about a Haitian woman who works in a Haitian bordello and runs off with a man with whom she has  decadent relationship where abuse is a turn-on.

 

"A Diamond Guitar" is about men in a prison work camp and it too is decadent.  The protagonist is a murderer and we're meant to sympathize with him.  It's also hopelessly homoerotic.  (Give me the homoerotic genius of the late M.R.. James's ghost stories because they're also the very best ghost stories and because as an Oxforrd Professor he doesn't reach for low-hanging fruit.

 

I'm a very tolerant person.  My heart breaks for the long-dead Oscar Wilde having to do hard labor just for being gay.  But Capote's stuff...it's not enjoyable to  me.

 

I expect to love "A Christmas Memory" so I'm saving it for tomorrow.  Don't want to read it the same day as the above two.

 

I know it cost him his standing and maybe his life but give me his NY stories, including "Answered Prayers" -- the woman are flawed but not grossly so and the stories are dishy with payoff.  JMO.

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers


@smoky22 wrote:

@LoriLori  I always felt there was something too cutesy (unrealistic?) about the movie.  I do love Audrey Hepburn, but she was not exactly a role model in the movie.  I'm glad you posted this about the book.  I would never have known. 

 

You're never going to see the movie again (me neither) and I'm never, ever, ever going to read the book, lol.    


 

I don't know now if I could watch the movie again or not.  Audrey Hepburn is brilliant amd so glamorous...Probably it has, but now I don't know if the book has ruined it for me or not. 

 

BTW the man who in the movie is called Paul in the movie has no name n the book    She doesn't even use his name, calls him Fred after her brother.  She's a horrible person.  

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Re: Breakfast at Tiffany's -- novella vs. film -- spoilers

LoriLori, your points regarding Capote are valid. His later works were very mean-spirited; the society people he favored wore away any innocence he might have still had.

 

His standards slipped as his life continued: emotional pain overtook his art. I am reluctant to admit that, but it is sadly true.

 

I appreciate your comments (on this and other matters).