The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Name: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
ISBN: 9787532771509

F. Scott FitzgeraldShanghai Translation Publishing House2016

4.0

Word count: 188K words
Chapters: 6
ISBN: 9787532771509

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Summary

This is a bilingual illustrated edition of F. Scott Fitzgerald's short fiction from Shanghai Translation Publishing House, containing Chinese translations and English originals of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," along with an introduction and hand-drawn illustrations. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," written in 1921, was first published in the May 1922 issue of Collier's Weekly and later collected in the short story collection Tales of the Jazz Age. The protagonist, Benjamin Button, is born looking like an old man, and thereafter time runs backward through him: while others grow older year by year, he grows younger. Rejected by Yale because of his strange appearance, he repeatedly encounters absurd situations due to various mismatches; his marriage, career, and family are likewise thrown into disarray by this reverse life. With an almost joking premise, the story delivers a biting allegory about aging, the stages of life, and social prejudice, and its ending is especially bleak. "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" is another representative Fitzgerald work rich in fantasy: a young man stumbles into a mansion hidden in the mountains that conceals a gigantic diamond, and witnesses an extreme life that shuts out the world through wealth, the story shifting repeatedly between splendor and cruelty. Both stories have unusual structures and novel concepts, with prose as fluent as poetry, and the bilingual format gives them an added use for language learning beyond their fantastical interest. David Fincher's 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button brought the original work renewed widespread attention, and this book was released against that backdrop.

Editor's review

一提到《返老还童》，很多人先想到布拉德·皮特主演的那部电影；但电影讲的是爱情史诗，菲茨杰拉德的原著却是一则短促、犀利、带黑色幽默的寓言。本杰明·巴顿从老人走向婴儿的一生，在菲茨杰拉德笔下并不温情，反而充满被拒绝、被误解、被世俗规训的荒诞感——读完才明白，“越活越年轻”从来不是祝福。这个译文版的好处在于“小而有料”：收录《返老还童》与《一颗像里茨饭店那么大的钻石》两篇奇幻代表作，中英双语对照，配导读与插图，篇幅不长，一两晚就能通读。想先读故事的人只看中文也毫无障碍；想体会菲茨杰拉德句子的节奏与讽刺的分寸，可以翻到后面的原文，对照着读尤其有意思。作为“爵士时代”的代言人，菲茨杰拉德写浮华极尽绚烂，写幻灭又极尽清醒。这两篇正是他炫技式的短篇：概念新奇、结构精巧、文字流利如诗。想入门菲茨杰拉德、又怕《了不起的盖茨比》太熟太薄的人，从这一本开始正合适。

Who it's for

A good fit for

读过或看过电影《本杰明·巴顿奇事》，想读原著对比的读者
想用短篇入门菲茨杰拉德、了解爵士时代文学的读者
希望通过中英对照练习英语阅读与文学翻译的学习者
喜欢奇幻设定与讽刺寓言、偏爱短篇的文学爱好者

Not a good fit for

只想读长篇爱情故事、期待电影式温情叙事的读者
希望一次读完菲茨杰拉德全部短篇的深度研究者
完全不能接受中英对照排版、需要纯中文单行本的读者

Reading tips

先通读中文译文，抓住故事的荒诞与讽刺，再回头看英文原文品味句式与反讽。
把《返老还童》与电影版对照，注意原著如何处理时间线、家庭与结尾。
读《一颗像里茨饭店那么大的钻石》时留意“财富隔绝世界”的隐喻，与《了不起的盖茨比》互文理解。
两篇篇幅都不长，可当作一晚上的短篇阅读，读后记下你对“逆生长”这个设定的疑问。

About the publisher

Shanghai Translation Publishing House China · Founded in 1978

Shanghai Translation Publishing House is a Chinese publisher oriented mainly toward translation and publishing. Its publications cover foreign literature, world classics and classic works, as well as social culture, folk literature and classical poetry. The database contains 2,618 titles, including Never Let Me Go, Les Misérables (2 volumes), Don Quixote (illustrated collector's edition), The Complete Comedies of Molière (4 volumes), The Complete Novels of Kafka (3 volumes), The Collected Works of Dostoevsky (9-volume set), Reason and Persons, and Oedipus Rex (Translation Classics). Its author resources include foreign writers such as Kazuo Ishiguro, Victor Hugo, Cervantes and Molière, as well as translators such as Zheng Kelu, Sun Jiameng, Li Jianwu and Zhang Kun. The publisher has brands such as "Translation Classics Selections" and "Translation Documentary," and emphasizes translated works in foreign literature and the humanities and social sciences, while also publishing bilingual dictionaries and foreign-language educational books. Public information is limited; the above is based on the book information in the database.

Copyright Information
Introduction
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Sections 1–11)
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (Ⅰ–Ⅺ)
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (Sections 1–11)
THE DIAMOND AS BIG AS THE RITZ (Ⅰ–Ⅺ)

FAQ

这本书就是电影《返老还童》的原著吗？

是。电影《本杰明·巴顿奇事》（2008，大卫·芬奇导演）改编自菲茨杰拉德1922年发表的短篇《返老还童》。但电影改动很大，增加了爱情主线与大量细节，原著更短、更冷峻，也更像一则寓言，两者宜分开看待。

这一版收录了哪些篇目？

本书为中英双语插图本，收录《返老还童》和《一颗像里茨饭店那么大的钻石》两篇短篇小说的中文译文与英文原文，并附导读与插图，页码约三四百页。

需要英文很好才能读吗？

不必。中文译文在前，可以独立通读；英文原文作为对照部分，适合想感受原文节奏或练习英语的读者，读不懂也可以跳过。

书名《返老还童》和《本杰明·巴顿奇事》是什么关系？

两者是同一篇小说的不同译名。《返老还童》是较流行的中文书名，直译则为《本杰明·巴顿奇事》，指的都是 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button。

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About the author

F. Scott Fitzgerald Author · American · 1896–1940

F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940), born Francis Scott Fitzgerald, was an American novelist and short-story writer. He is regarded as a representative writer of the Jazz Age and a leading figure of the Lost Generation, best known for the novel The Great Gatsby. His other works include This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, and Tender Is the Night. His writing often draws on the glamour and disillusionment of upper-class life, with a delicate, lyrical style that captures the sense of loss behind youth, love, and dreams of wealth. His works are commonly classified as foreign literature, world classics, and social fiction. Beyond novels, he also left essays and letters, and this collection includes letters to his daughter and a volume of his later works, revealing another side of his writing.