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Alan Davis DrakeThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Free audio download. Unabridged.

Here is F. Scott Fitzgerald's somewhat obscure short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" —obscure of course, until Mr. Button became conflated with Mr. Pitt.

Recorded here is the complete, original story as penned by Fitzgerald in the early 1920s, published originally in Colliers and finally collected in the popular Tales of the Jazz Age. One might call Benjamin Button an odd addition to the collection, as he was born in 1860, the year prior to Lincoln gaining his Presidency —a long way from the Jazz Age, which marked its begiining when Benjamin was 60... and was... well, you'll have to listen to the REAL story to find out what happened before Hollywood stepped in...

The story is prefaced by Fitzgerald's brief humorous comment hidden away in the book's table of contents. Here he establishes both the tale's humor and its pathos and in a further sense, grounds it in our growing tradition of American literary sensibilities with a nod to Mr. Clemens.

The story is available in three versions:

MP3 - The complete story - not bookmarked, but bookmarkable
MP3 - The complete story in two separate parts - labled Chapters 01-05 and 06-11
M4a - The complete story - bookmarked for the iPod

Enjoy. And please leave comments.


This audio is part of the collection: Community Audio

Artist/Composer: Alan Davis Drake
Keywords: American Literature; audiobook; F. Scott Fitzgerald; Alan Davis Drake; recording; audio; audiobook

Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States

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Reviewer: Sayeth - - February 11, 2011
Subject: Free Listens review
Alan Davis-Drake's interpretation of this work of literature makes clear both the humor and sadness of Benjamin's life. He gives his characters distinct and appropriate voices that fill out their written descriptions and make them more three-dimensional. There are other recordings of this story, many of them quite good, but this one, I think, is my favorite.
For full review and reviews of other free audiobooks, visit www.freelistens.blogspot.com

Reviewer: litmeister - - February 7, 2009
Subject: A Worthwhile Hour
Audiobook listeners will WANT this recording for their collections. I was thrilled to find this remarkable interpretation of Fitzgerald's short story. It's quite surprising to find a FREE recording like this ---although I see it's copyright (?). So what. The narration is excellent and the characterizations are engaging.

If you want to know the REAL Benjamin Button story done as good as it could be, without Hollywood's manipulations, this recording will give it to you in Ace's. An hour of good listening.

I was delighted to find this, by accident. It should somehow be made more visible here on the Internet, so more people can enjoy it.