Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    Audiobook1 hour

    The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Narrated by David Philo

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    The story Benjamin Button who is born with the physical appearance of a 70-year-old man and ages backwards through his life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSaland Publishing
    Release dateJan 10, 2010
    ISBN9781907818530
    Author

    F. Scott Fitzgerald

    F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) is regarded as one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century. His short stories and novels are set in the American ‘Jazz Age’ of the Roaring Twenties and include This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, Tender Is the Night, The Great Gatsby, The Last Tycoon, and Tales of the Jazz Age.

    More audiobooks from F. Scott Fitzgerald

    Related to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    Related audiobooks

    Classics For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The best-ever ROMANCES

      Jan 7, 2021

      The best-ever ROMANCES
      2 min read

    • Article

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read

      Aug 7, 2018

      Seven Books I’ll Never Read
      6 min read

    • Article

      In Summary

      Jul 1, 2021

      There’s some good writing here. This short extract has covered a lot of ground and established that Edwina is a recently widowed woman thanks to the sinking of the Titanic. Her interior voice is skilfully rendered and there are some subtle touches su

      1 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    3.5/5

    683 ratings46 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 2/5
      Oh, F. Scott. Not entirely sure how to feel about this tale. Should I laugh? Should I cry? In the end, I did neither.

      Let me start by saying I adore Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. I love the lyrical descriptions, the flawed characters, and the excess, vanity, and tragedy oozing through each line. Even the characters I hate are drawn perfectly enough to understand their motivations and poor decisions. Not so with Benjamin Button. We fly through his life in reverse with little detail. I'm left with so many unanswered questions. What happened to his mother? How did the split with his wife occur? What in the world was everyone around him thinking as he regressed right into a crib and on to his grave? The story is told through Benjamin's point of view, and as a result we aren't shown any other perspective. It left me a little depressed at the end. Benjamin was unlikeable as he "aged" into his immaturity, which is probably the point. I think Benjamin is supposed to be a sympathetic character, but I didn't feel it as I read. Fitzgerald was said to have called this "the funniest story ever written" but at no point did the story make me laugh.

      If you are looking for a short story by Fitzgerald, I recommend Bernice Bobs Her Hair instead. Much more satisfying.
    • 4/5
      I’ve seen the film of this story twice, and never really felt much affinity with it, and now I’ve read the book I realise that this is simply down to the fact that the original story doesn’t particularly lend itself to being made into a film. Fitzgerald has a certain flair that needs to be read, or at least not mangled slightly, projected onto the silver screen, and dressed up with bells, whistles and Brad Pitt. It worked much better in my own imagination. The other stories were equally well-written, happily, and overall it was a great little read.
    • 1/5
      I found this book slow and tiresome, despite being a short story it felt far too long. I did however recently watch the film by the same now and really enjoyed it. The only thing that the book and the film have in common are Benjamin's condition of aging in reverse everything else is completely different.
    • 2/5
      The narrator was good, fine, nice accent. The book is just nonsense. It's funny to pass on the time and very different than the movie.
    • 3/5
      Strange book...... can't say I didn't enjoy it though.... don't understand why his mother wasn't mentioned though, only talked about the male relatives.... only woman mentioned was his wife. No explanation of how he was given birth.... this one will keep me thinking.... maybe I will watch the movie. It's funny though, I've often told people myself that I wish God had made us backwards, had made us old first and that we grew young instead of old. Youth is often wasted on young people. LOL.
    • 3/5
      This is a review of the short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."I recently saw the movie version of this story, and so I bought the Fitzgerald version and sat down to read it. Normally, it is almost unheard of for a movie to be better than the book (in my opinion), but for this one, I have to disagree.I suppose that being a short story, Fitzgerald couldn't possibly have filled in all of the details that I was eager to read. I can't help wishing that he would have decided to write this one as a full novel instead. The idea of the story is just so intriguing, I would have love to have spent more time in the story.The plot line is the following: By a stroke of mind boggling chance, Mr. and Mrs. Button manage to parent a newborn... old man. Though bewildered, they do their best to give their son the best life they know how. But as Benjamin grows up, he becomes younger, not older. This complicates his entire life, including aspirations to attend college, his marriage, how he relates to his children and grandchildren, and much more. I love the idea here, of a man aging backwards, and yet there was a lot about the story that I did not like.First of all, a lot of it didn't make very much sense. For example, Mrs. Button has a baby and it is a normal sized old man. At least in the movie they tried to make this plausible - the newborn was the ordinary size for a baby, only its face and skin was that of an old man. But here, the baby isn't a baby at all. He literally IS an old man. Now this is of course, impossible. No woman could give birth to a human being the same size as herself!Also, minutes after being born, Benjamin can speak. I suppose that this was done to further the notion that he is an old man and in no way a baby or a child. However, this is, again, impossible. I think that I like the movie's version better - he learns to speak gradually, like any other child in the world.Another thing that is not necessarily a flaw but that annoyed me was the character of Benjamin's wife, Hildegarde Moncrief. I have to admit that I was expecting a love story here, but actually Benjamin neither loves nor is ever loved by any woman in his life, besides his mother. Hildegarde is introduced to the story so that Benjamin can marry her, and after that never really appears again except to be mentioned two or three times. It is said that Benjamin finds her annoying, and later that she has gone to Italy. After this, she vanishes altogether from the story. She must have died at some time in Benjamin's lifetime, since she was technically so much older than him, but that is never mentioned either.I hate to keep saying this (it seems a bit wrong to say about any book - especially one written by Fitzgerald!), but again, I like how the movie portrayed this part much better.The love story that the screenwriters added in was lovely, one that conquered time, age, and death. But, don't expect any of that here.I am not saying that this short story was horrid... I liked the occasional bit of dry humor, and I was laughing at the jibes Fitzgerald kept poking at Yale!Perhaps if I had read the short story before I saw the movie, I would have liked it more, but I couldn't stop myself from looking for something deeper here, and I didn't find it. Not surprising, considering that this is only a short story, but nevertheless. It didn't impress me.
    • 3/5
      Well, that WAS curious. Hmm.
    • 3/5
      I wouldn't want to be born into the Button family even if I didn't age backwards. Roger was mean, Benjamin was stubborn, selfish, and bratty, and Roscoe was also mean.

      I read it because I saw the movie.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite stories of all time.
    • 2/5
      This is one of those cases where the movie is simply better in all ways. The idea is quite nice: a man is born old and ages backwards. However, the naivety and ridiculousness of the characters involved makes it a nauseating read.

      The movie handles the basic plot much better. It had an emotional core that the short story lacks. It also had a far more interesting narrative.
    • 3/5
      A short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald which features a person born as an old man and gradually "aging" to a baby. Benjamin finds himself in some ironic situations do to his reverse aging. The situations become sadder and sadder due to age reversal. In some ways, it reminds me of the progress of dementia.
    • 3/5
      A melancholic story about a man who is born old and grows younger with age, always a stranger in his own body and a disappointment to the expectations of the world around him. The characters are not photorealistic individuals like we're used to from modern stories, but stand-ins for social archetypes. Women don't exist, not in any meaningful role. But Fitzgerald unveils the pitfalls of these archetypes in a clever way until the inevitable disillusion fades away in the nescience of the child.
    • 3/5
      A quick listen (as an audio book) of a curious case. Suspend your disbelief and just enjoy!
    • 3/5
      I happened across this story and thought it sounded interesting. It's about a man who ages backwards -- he looks like an old man when he is born, and slowly ages back to a baby. Not too long ago I read a novel with a similar premise titled "The Confessions of Max Tivoli". I enjoyed that novel a lot, and enjoyed the story being fleshed out a bit more than it was here. But for a short story (or novella), this was enjoyable and gave you something to think about.
    • 4/5
      How did a lady birth a full grown man?

      Weird

      It's a pretty depressing story. I feel bad for him. He just needs a hug.

      I like the illustrations. It was hard sometimes to tell how old he was supposed to be. But that's okay.
    • 2/5
      I've not seen the movie, but of course I knew the premise going in. I hope the movie executes the concept better than this clunker did. Lots of great ideas - but anyone who just ponders the idea of aging backwards will come up with those ideas on their own. Fitzgerald added nothing.

      Ok, I admit - he added something that strongly resembles misogyny. Apparently Benjamin's mother had no influence on his up-bringing, and his wife was worthless past the age of forty. So, either FSF didn't think women's roles were worth working out in the story, or he didn't think women are worth much, period.
    • 3/5
      Having seen the movie I guess I was expecting a longer book this is more of a sketch of an idea than a novella. It wasn't a bad little read but the 30 odd pages only took me about 20 minutes and I can't say that in those 30 pages I gained any emotional investment what so ever.
    • 4/5
      When Roger Button goes to meet his infant son Benjamin for the first time at the maternity hospital, he’s horrified and sickened to find an old man in the cot. The hospital staff can’t get rid of the family quick enough. And so begins Benjamin’s backwards life.

      I had no idea how short this was when I reserved it. How they made a 2 hour 40 minute film out of 52 pages of story, I don't know, although I gather the film isn't the same story as the book and obviously it must be (very) fleshed out! The book, however, is brilliant!

      One can’t help feeling sorry for Benjamin. It’s not his fault that he was born an old man but people reject him - his father keeps him at arm’s length and is hugely embarrassed by Benjamin - Benjamin’s mother doesn’t appear much in the story.

      As is inevitable, he is unable to stop the ‘unaging’ process and the story can only end with one possible conclusion.

      It’s such a tight story - this copy is only 52 pages long. It is funny in places, sad in others and totally entertaining throughout. I will definitely try something else by this author.
    • 4/5
      Having recently gotten around to seeing the movie I wanted to read the original story. I am glad I did. The movie romanticizes the story beautifully, but the short story tells us a little more of the gritty truth behind what would happen if a man were to age backwards. Regardless of the fact that I was familiar with the outcome of the story, from the very line I wanted to keep reading to find out what happens. If that’s not the sign of writing excellence then I cannot think of another one.
    • 4/5
      This book was like a masterclass on how to write the perfect short story - I'd forgotten just how genius Fitzgerald is with words on a page. Some of the main threads of the stories were utterly bonkers yet totally brilliant. He manages to combine crazy plots with wry humour, and then interweaves a heavy thread of irony. I was conscious how fresh the stories felt, despite being over 90 years old in many cases, which I think is testament to how ahead of the game he was in his day.Of the 7, I had 3 favourites. 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' is pretty well known now, but I've not seen the film so I was able to delight in this clever tale with fresh eyes. The idea of someone living their life back to front from old to young was inspired, and it was hilarious how he played with this. I really did think this was a funny story.'The Cut Glass Bowl' was probably my favourite of all - this was about a big glass bowl that a woman is given as a wedding present by a jilted beau with the ill words: "I'm going to give a present that's as hard as you are and as beautiful and as empty and as easy to see through". His words set some kind of curse upon the bowl, which causes a series of significant catastrophes in the woman's life.'The Four Fists' was also so clever: a man is punched 4 times in his life, and each time he has a total revelation about his own wrongdoings, in effect literally having some sense knocked into him.The other 4 stories are also sharp and enjoyable. In 'Head and Shoulders' there's huge irony as to the ultimate independent successes of a university prodigy and his uneducated mediocre actress of a wife. 'May Day', set around a Yale sorority alumni party, is about the harsh realities of success and failure, mobs and hard partying. 'O Russet Witch!' is set around a bookshop and a man's fleeting encounters in life with a mysterious enchantress, and 'Crazy Sunday' tells the story of a young Hollywood continuity writer and his bizarre relationship with a director and his wife.As with most of Fitzgerald's work, many of the stories include a backdrop of parties and excessive drinking. The men invariably tend to end up disillusioned and down on their luck, and the women are generally stereotyped as one dimensional adulteresses who cause the men's downfalls in one form or another. Perhaps because of this, I wasn't always riveted the whole way through this book, yet when I think about each story in turn I'm just blown away by their cleverness.4 stars for me I think. I'm generally not a fan of short stories - the jumping in and out of completely different characters and plots isn't my favourite type of reading, so this was never going to be a favourite book for me, but this are so well crafted I have to doff my hat to the great man once again.
    • 3/5
      For Christmas, I ordered an mp3 player (Library of Classics) that was pre-loaded with 100 works of classic literature in an audio format. Each work is in the public domain and is read by amateurs, so the quality of the presentation is hit or miss. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a very short story. Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the story involves a man who ages in reverse. He is born a 70 year old man and goes through life in reverse, marrying a woman far younger than himself who ultimately becomes too old for him.Of course, it is irredeemably silly in both its premise and its execution. While there are a few amusing scenarios, it is really not exceptional in any way.
    • 4/5
      I stumbled on this little book at my local used book store. Immediately, I was surprised that this little illustrated 63 pages book can turn into a 2 hr, 48 min movie. Well, not quite. The movie is loosely based on the book, and the book took some creative conveniences to walk a fairly straight line in the storytelling, skipping big chunks of time as it suits FSF. “Of the life of Benjamin Button between his twelfth and twenty-first year I intend to say little.” The biggest gap is the complete absence of Benjamin’s mom, for that matter, just about all normal female characters except the future wife and nurse. When his wife turned old (~59), FSF just shipped her off to Italy and kicked her out of the story altogether. Nonetheless, I’d imagine its original release in 1922 (included in ‘Tales of the Jazz Age’) still caused a buzz. Conveniences or not, FSF did a fine job in the timeline reversal, starting with the old age birth, stepping us through his age/year and the corresponding ‘visual’ age, through to the end. With this short length, FSF does not always take the reader in depth to address how Benjamin feels. We learn about frustrations of his father at the beginning, his inability to attend kindergarten and college, and the later years when he is too young to be a contributing member of society. I had liked the movie, and I liked this version of the plot too. (Psst, they’re different!) Perhaps I’m too practical, but with such a short book and a relatively dense story, I did not expect an emotional roller coaster. And there wasn’t one. I will give props on the words that delivered the ending. I’ll let you discover those yourselves. One last note, this illustrated version is wonderful. And extra 1/2 star for this aspect. Some quotes:On jealousy:“… He stood close to the wall, silent, inscrutable, watching with murderous eyes the young bloods of Baltimore as they eddied around Hildegarde Moncrief, passionate admiration in their faces. How obnoxious they seemed to Benjamin; how intolerably rosy! Their curling brown whiskers aroused in him a feeling equivalent to indigestions. But when his own time came, and he drifted with her out upon the changing floor to the music of the latest waltz from Paris, his jealousies and anxieties melted from him like a mantle of snow. Blind with enchantment, he felt that life was just beginning.”On Love and Aging – made me think a little:“’I like men of your age,’ Hildegarde told him. ‘Young boys are so idiotic. They tell me how much champagne they drink at college, and how much money they lose playing cards. Men of your age know how to appreciate women… …You’re just the romantic age – fifty. Twenty-five is too wordly-wise; thirty is apt to be pale from overwork; forty is the age of long stories that take a whole cigar to tell; sixty is – oh, sixty is too near seventy; but fifty is the mellow age. I love fifty.’”
    • 4/5
      Not sure what to say that this story was about, but an entertaining, absurd plot. Very short.
    • 4/5
      “For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be.”
    • 3/5
      Nice read, but not extraordinary.
    • 4/5
      Didn't expect it to be so short!
    • 3/5
      Not really worthy of note, aside from being the inspiration for the movie. The illustrations are quite good, but I didn't like that Fitzgerald focused on the character's external, rather than internal, conflicts. By keeping Benjamin's mind at the same age level at his body, rather than having his mind age normally while his body ages in reverse, he misses out on a lot that made the movie interesting.
    • 3/5
      Very short novel.. Intriging premise. Felt nonsensical in the beginning but as he begins to grow younger it is easy to get caught up in the story. Some interesting issues arise most specifically his relationship with his wife Hildegarde. When he meets her he appears to be 50ish and finds her very attractive but as she reaches middle age and he is college age the attraction is lost. Rlevant issue when this was written and clearly relevent now.
    • 4/5
      Great short story with slight science-fiction undertones.
    • 3/5
      Very well written and interesting. You really felt for the characters.