The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Read Aloud Book
-
- $0.99
Publisher Description
This is a “Read Aloud Book”, meaning that it contains an audio file with a narrator’s voice who reads the text on the pages while the paragraphs are highlighted. The reader of the book can choose to have the pages turn automatically to keep the session flowing, or set them to turn manually. A tap on the screen displays controls in the upper-right corner of the book to customize the reading and listening experience.
About the book:
It is not common knowledge that F. Scott Fitzgerald, perhaps best known for his American classic “The Great Gatsby”, in fact wrote more short stories than he did novels. Arguably the most notable of these is “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” which - appealing to a universal human desire to preserve youth - documents the life of a man aging backwards; the short story was later made into a movie of the same name, starring Brad Pitt.
Narrator: Mike Vendetti (Project LibriVox)
Reading time : 60 min
Book size: 36 MB
Sample size: 6.8 MB
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The impending release of a movie version starring Brad Pitt has made this humorous tale, formerly among the least known of Fitzgerald's short stories, a hot property. DeFillippis and Weir's adaptation preserves the original's straight-faced tone describing the career of a man who begins life in his 70s and grows progressively younger. If bystanders find this more than "curious," they usually are just irritated at Benjamin for not behaving like other people. He himself is surprised as his body morphs, but is always open to new possibilities; his good-natured adaptability gives the social satire a gentle edge. Readers should, of course, look up Fitzgerald's original, but there's much to enjoy in this handsome little hardbound book. Cornell's sepia watercolor panels are especially clever at showing physical and emotional changes as Benjamin moves backward through life while America rolls forward for 70 years. A useful, gracefully written afterword by Donald G. Sheehy, professor of English, completes the volume nicely.
