5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

chapter 5. of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald, performed by Anna Butterworth

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Five. In eighteen eighty, BenjaminButton was twenty years old, and he
signalized his birthday by going to workfor his father in Roger Button and Company,
wholesale hardware. It was in thatsame year that he began going out
socially. That is, his fatherinsisted on taking him to several fashionable dances.

(00:22):
Roger Button was now fifty, andhe and his son were more and
more companionable. In fact, sinceBenjamin had ceased to dye his hair,
which was still grayish, they appearedabout the same age and could have passed
for brothers. One night in August, they got into the Phaeton attired in
their full dress suits and drove outto a dance at the Chevlin's country house,

(00:45):
situated just outside of Baltimore. Itwas a gorgeous evening. A full
moon drenched the road to the lustrelesscolor of platinum, and late blooming harvest
flowers breathed into the motionless air aromasthat were like low half heard laughter.
The open country carpeted for rods aroundwith bright wheat, was translucent. As

(01:07):
in the day, it was almostimpossible not to be affected by the sheer
beauty of the sky, almost there'sa great future in the dry goods business.
Roger Button was saying. He wasnot a spiritual man. His esthetic
sense was rudimentary. Old fellows likeme can't learn new tricks. He observed

(01:30):
profoundly, it's you, youngsters withenergy and vitality. They have the great
future. Before you, far upthe road, the lights of the Chauvelin's
country house drifted into view, andpresently there was a sighing sound that crept
persistently toward them. It might havebeen the fine plaint of violins, or

(01:51):
the rustle of the silver wheat underthe moon. They pulled up behind a
handsome browam whose passengers were disembarking.At the door. A lady got out,
then an elderly gentleman, then anotheryoung lady, beautiful as sin.
Benjamin started an almost chemical change,seemed to dissolve and recompose the very elements

(02:13):
of his body. A rigor passedover him, blood rose into his cheeks,
his forehead, and there was asteady thumping in his ears. It
was first love. The girl wasslender and frail, with hair that was
ashen under the moon, and honeycolored under the sputtering gas lamps. Of
the porch. Over her shoulders wasthrown a Spanish mantilla of softest yellow butterflied

(02:38):
in black. Her feet were glimmeringbuttons at the hem of her bustled dress.
Roger Button leaned over to his sonthat he said, is young Hildegarde
Moncrief, the daughter of General Moncrief. Benjamin nodded coldly. Pretty little thing,

(02:58):
he said indifferently. But when theNegro boy had led the buggy away,
he added, Dad, you mightintroduce me to her. They approached
a group of which Miss Moncrief wasthe center. Reared in the old tradition,
she curtesied low before Benjamin. Yes, he might have a dance.
He thanked her and walked away.Staggered away. The interval until the time

(03:23):
for his turn should arrive dragged itselfout interminably. He stood close to the
wall, silent, inscrutable, watchingwith 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 intolerablyrosy their curling brown whiskers aroused in him

(03:47):
a feeling equivalent to indigestion. Butwhen his own time came and he drifted
with her out upon the changing floorto the music of the latest waltz from
Paris, his jealous and anxieties meltedfrom him like a mantle of snow.
Blind with enchantment, he felt thatlife was just beginning. You and your

(04:09):
brother got here just as we did, didn't you, asked Hildegard, looking
up at him with eyes that werelike bright blue enamel. Benjamin hesitated.
If she took him for his father'sbrother, would it be best to enlighten
her. He remembered his experience atYale, so he decided against it.

(04:30):
It would be rude to contradict alady. It would be criminal to mar
this exquisite occasion with the grotesque storyof his origin. Later, perhaps so,
he nodded, smiled, listened,was happy. I like men of
your age, Hildegard told him.Young boys are so idiotic. They tell

(04:53):
me how much champagne they drink atcollege and how much money they lose playing
cards. Men of year age knowhow to appreciate women. Benjamin felt himself
on the verge of a proposal.With an effort he choked back the impulse.
You're just the romantic age, shecontinued. Fifty twenty five is too

(05:16):
worldly wise, thirty is apt tobe pale from overwork. Forty is the
age of long stories that take awhole cigar to tell. Sixty is oh,
sixty is two near seventy. Butfifty is the mellow age. I
love fifty. Fifty seemed to Benjamina glorious age. He longed passionately to

(05:39):
be fifty. I've always said,went on Hildegarde, that I'd rather marry
a man of fifty and be takencare of than a man of thirty and
take care of him. For Benjamin. The rest of the evening was bathed
in a honey colored mist. Hildegardgave him two more dances, and they

(06:00):
discovered that they were marvelously in accordon all the questions of the day.
She was to go driving with himon the following Sunday, and then they
would discuss all these questions further.Going home in the Phaeton, just before
the crack of dawn, when thefirst bees were humming and the fading moon
glimmered in the cool dew, Benjaminknew vaguely that his father was discussing wholesale

(06:24):
hardware, and what do you thinkshould merit our biggest attention after hammers and
nails. The elder Button was sayinglove, replied Benjamin, absent mindedly.
Lugs, exclaimed Roger Button. WhyI've just covered the question of lugs.
Benjamin regarded him with dazed eyes.Just as the Eastern sky was suddenly cracked

(06:48):
with light and an oriole yawned piercinglyin the quickening trees,