Chocolates for Breakfast
First edition
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| Author | Pamela Moore |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Rinehart & Company |
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Publication date
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January 1, 1956 |
Chocolates for Breakfast is a 1956 American novel written by Pamela Moore. Originally published in 1956 when Moore was eighteen years old, the novel gained notoriety from readers and critics for its frank depiction of teenage sexuality, and its discussion of the taboo topics of homosexuality and gender roles. The plot focuses on fifteen-year-old Courtney Farrell and her destructive upbringing between her father, a wealthy Manhattan publisher, and her mother, a faltering Hollywood actress.
Upon its release in 1956, the novel became an international sensation and was published in multiple languages, with many critics drawing comparisons to the 1954 French novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan.Chocolates for Breakfast went out of print in 1967, and was not reprinted in the United States until Harper Perennial re-released the novel in June 2013. This marks its first re-printing in North America in over forty-five years.
The book opens with Courtney Farrell and her best friend Janet Parker at a New England boarding school, arguing over Courtney's attachment to her English teacher, Miss Rosen, whom Janet derides as "queer." Later the school pressures Miss Rosen to not talk to Courtney outside of class, and Courtney falls into a depression. She leaves school and joins her single mother, Sondra, in Hollywood. As Sondra struggles to find work as an actress, Courtney often has to take care of her and manage their situation. She also takes up with Sondra's friends, including Barry Cabot, a bisexual actor with whom she has an affair, though he breaks it off to return to his male lover.
Courtney often expresses a wish that she were born a man, as in this conversation with her teacher Miss Rosen:
"Don’t you think of yourself as a woman?” Miss Rosen said, amused. “No, not really,” Courtney said thoughtfully. “I don’t think the way they do. Men always tell me that I think like a man. It would be a lot simpler if I were a man. I guess. But maybe it wouldn’t be. .../... Since I can remember I’ve dreamt that I am a man. I hardly even notice now that in all my dreams I’m myself, but a man. I wonder why that is,” she mused.
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Wikipedia