The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a short story about a man who ages in reverse, from senescence to infancy, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It was first published in Collier's Magazine on May 27, 1922, with the cover and illustrations by James Montgomery Flagg. It was subsequently anthologized in Fitzgerald's 1922 book Tales of the Jazz Age, which is occasionally published as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Other Jazz Age Stories. The story was later adapted into the 2008 namesake film and the 2019 stage musical. Plot Benjamin Button is born in Baltimore in 1860 with the physical appearance of a 70-year-old man, and already capable of speech. His father, Roger, invites neighbourhood boys to play with him and orders him to play with children's toys, but Benjamin obeys only to please his father. At five, Benjamin is sent to kindergarten, but he is quickly withdrawn after he repeatedly falls asleep during the children's activities. At the age of 18, Benjamin enrolls in Yale College, but he is sent home by officials who think that he is a 50-year-old lunatic. When Benjamin turns 20, the Button family realizes that he is aging backwards. In 1880, when Benjamin is 20, his father gives him control of Roger Button & Co. Wholesale Hardware. Benjamin meets the young Hildegarde Moncrief, a daughter of General Moncrief, and falls in love with her. Hildegarde mistakes Benjamin for a 50-year-old brother of Roger Button and, as she prefers older men, she marries him six months later. She remains ignorant of his condition.