5 h 3 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if your family's forgotten past holds something the whole town tried to erase?
Charles Dexter Ward vanishes from a private asylum near Providence. His physician, Dr. Marinus Willett, knows that something about his patient is deeply wrong. H. P. Lovecraft's short novel turns back to Charles's boyhood, tracing how a polite young scholar's love of old records becomes a dangerous pursuit.
A hidden portrait draws Charles toward Joseph Curwen, an ancestor whose name Providence tries to erase after his death. Letters, notes and old testimony reveal a merchant feared for his secret work and strange failure to age. As Charles follows his studies abroad, his father worries, and Willett tries to understand the young man's change.
What you’ll discover
- A city steeped in dread Walk Providence's old streets, where records and crumbling houses draw Charles deeper into the past.
- An ancestor worth fearing Meet Joseph Curwen through the notes and suspicions that preserve his disturbing history.
- A physician seeking answers Follow Willett's steady efforts to understand the change in someone he has known since birth.
- Clues gathered from documents Piece together letters, testimony and records as Lovecraft builds terror slowly, like a case file.
- The pull of inherited secrets Explore how a family line can carry more than a name, shaping Charles's dangerous curiosity.
Who will love it
For readers who love atmospheric horror, old New England towns and tales built from documents and rumors. It is a good first step into Lovecraft.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A boy who loves the past too well
- A portrait hidden behind old paneling
- The strange career of Joseph Curwen
- Travels abroad and a changing young man
- What the story says about blood and the past
- How Lovecraft builds dread from documents
Who’s who
- Charles Dexter WardA young scholar from Providence whose love of old records leads him to a hidden ancestor and a dangerous study.
- Dr. Marinus WillettThe Ward family physician, a steady and practical man who has known Charles since birth and tries to understand his change.
- Joseph CurwenAn eighteenth century Providence merchant, feared by his neighbors for his secret work and his odd failure to age.
- Theodore Howland WardCharles's father, a respectable businessman who worries about his son's behavior and seeks medical help.
- Ezra WeedenA Providence man of Curwen's day whose notes and suspicions help record the merchant's secret doings.
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- 15-minute summary
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Der Fall Charles Dexter Ward
by H. P. Lovecraft · 1941
In Providence, a young scholar's fascination with a hidden ancestor draws him into a dangerous study.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A boy who loves the past too well
The story begins with Dr. Marinus Willett, the Ward family physician, who has known Charles Dexter Ward since the boy was born. Charles grows up in Providence, in a comfortable home on the old hill above the river. From his earliest years he is drawn to the old buildings, the colonial doorways and the faded records of the city. He is quiet, serious and more at ease among antiquities than among other children.
As he grows older, this taste becomes a study. Charles reads in libraries, copies old inscriptions and walks the streets of his home town hunting for traces of earlier lives. His parents think the hobby harmless, even admirable. They are a respectable family, and a son with scholarly interests seems no cause for worry. Dr. Willett watches him with approval, since the boy is gentle and well mannered.
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What is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward about?
It tells of a young man from Providence who becomes fascinated with an ancestor, Joseph Curwen, whose secret studies the town tried to erase. His family doctor, Dr. Willett, tries to understand the changes in him.
When was The Case of Charles Dexter Ward written and published?
Lovecraft wrote it in 1927, but he never submitted it for publication. It first appeared in print in 1941, in the magazine Weird Tales, a few years after his death.
Is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward a true story?
No, it is fiction. Lovecraft set it in the real city of Providence and used genuine streets and local history, which gives it a documentary feel, but the characters and events are invented.
The author
H. P. Lovecraft
1890–1937 · American horror writer
Howard Phillips Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American writer and editor born in Providence, Rhode Island. He lived mainly in Providence, but also lived in New York City from 1924 to 1926. He wrote horror stories, including “The Call of Cthulhu,” published in 1928, and “The Dunwich Horror,” published in 1929.
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