6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

chapter 6. of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald, performed by Anna Butterworth

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Six. When six months later,the engagement of Miss Hildegarde Moncrief to mister
Benjamin Button was made known. Isay made known, for General Moncrief declared
he would rather fall upon his swordthan announce it. The excitement in Baltimore
society reached a feverish pitch. Thealmost forgotten story of Benjamin's birth was remembered

(00:26):
and sent out upon the winds ofscandal in picuresque and incredible forms. It
was said that Benjamin was really thefather of Roger Button, that he was
his brother who had been in prisonfor forty years, that he was John
Wilkes's booth in disguise, and finally, that he had two small conical horns
sprouting from his head. The Sundaysupplements of the New York Papers played up

(00:50):
the case with fascinating sketches which showedthe head of Benjamin Button attached to a
fish, to a snake, andfinally to a body of solid brass.
He became known journalistically as the mysteryMan of Maryland, but the true story,
as is usually the case, hada very small circulation. However,

(01:11):
every one agreed with General Moncrief thatit was criminal for a lovely girl who
could have married any beau in Baltimoreto throw herself into the arms of a
man who was assuredly fifty. InVain, mister Roger Button published his son's
birth certificate in large type in theBaltimore Blaze. No one believed it.
You had only to look at Benjaminand see on the part of the two

(01:36):
people most concerned. There was nowavering. So many of the stories about
her fiancee were false that Hildegarde refusedstubbornly to believe even the true one.
In Vain, General Moncrief pointed outto her the high mortality among men of
fifty, or at least among menwho looked fifty. In Vain, he

(01:56):
told her of the instability of thewholesale hardware business. Hildegarde had chosen to
marry for Melaness and Mary. Shedid