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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: The much-adapted, perpetually fascinating fable from the author of The Great Gatsby

The classic, moving tale of a man born old, destined to die young, and live at odds with his time

To the confusion and embarrassment of his family, Benjamin Button is born an old man. As the years pass, he grows younger – moving against the current of ordinary life. While those around him age as expected, Benjamin finds himself increasingly out of step, his relationships strained by a life no one else can share. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quietly unsettling tale of being a misfit to one’s time.

Includes the The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Winter Dreams and 'The Sensible Thing'

BRIEF classic novellas and captivating stories, to be read in a single sitting or savoured over days

97 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 2, 2026

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About the author

F. Scott Fitzgerald

2,497 books26.2k followers
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, widely known simply as Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age, a term he popularized in his short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. During his lifetime, he published four novels, four story collections, and 164 short stories. Although he achieved temporary popular success and fortune in the 1920s, Fitzgerald received critical acclaim only after his death and is now widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
Born into a middle-class family in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Fitzgerald was raised primarily in New York state. He attended Princeton University where he befriended future literary critic Edmund Wilson. Owing to a failed romantic relationship with Chicago socialite Ginevra King, he dropped out in 1917 to join the United States Army during World War I. While stationed in Alabama, he met Zelda Sayre, a Southern debutante who belonged to Montgomery's exclusive country-club set. Although she initially rejected Fitzgerald's marriage proposal due to his lack of financial prospects, Zelda agreed to marry him after he published the commercially successful This Side of Paradise (1920). The novel became a cultural sensation and cemented his reputation as one of the eminent writers of the decade.
His second novel, The Beautiful and Damned (1922), propelled him further into the cultural elite. To maintain his affluent lifestyle, he wrote numerous stories for popular magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly, and Esquire. During this period, Fitzgerald frequented Europe, where he befriended modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community, including Ernest Hemingway. His third novel, The Great Gatsby (1925), received generally favorable reviews but was a commercial failure, selling fewer than 23,000 copies in its first year. Despite its lackluster debut, The Great Gatsby is now hailed by some literary critics as the "Great American Novel". Following the deterioration of his wife's mental health and her placement in a mental institute for schizophrenia, Fitzgerald completed his final novel, Tender Is the Night (1934).
Struggling financially because of the declining popularity of his works during the Great Depression, Fitzgerald moved to Hollywood, where he embarked upon an unsuccessful career as a screenwriter. While living in Hollywood, he cohabited with columnist Sheilah Graham, his final companion before his death. After a long struggle with alcoholism, he attained sobriety only to die of a heart attack in 1940, at 44. His friend Edmund Wilson edited and published an unfinished fifth novel, The Last Tycoon (1941), after Fitzgerald's death. In 1993, a new edition was published as The Love of the Last Tycoon, edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli.

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
25 reviews
August 13, 2026
My 1st time reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s works, and sad to say, I don’t think his stories appeal to me. I picked up this short story collection as I was intrigued by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, whose movie adaptation I’d watched twice and always found it heartaching.

The original story turns out drastically different from the movie; the only similarity is that of Benjamin Button ageing in reverse. Personally I find the movie adaptation more touching with a better storyline.

As for the other 2 stories in this collection, Winter Dreams and The Sensible Thing - neither of them feels engaging at all. Both are about lost loves but I don’t feel moved. Maybe I’m just not literary enough to appreciate the author’s writings.
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118 reviews
September 21, 2026
Drie verhalen over het maatschappelijke keurslijf, over mannen die zich in de verdoemenis storten voor mooie vrouwen, over de valsheid van verwachtingen.

The Curious Case (…): 7/10
Winter Dreams: 8/10
“The Sensible Thing”: 9/10
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews