5 h 3 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 5 h 3 minPaperback · 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
Readers who love gothic mysteries, haunted family histories and old New England towns will enjoy this book. It also suits fans of weird fiction who relish letters, diaries and gathering dread.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A doctor fears the freedom of his patient
- A family tree hides a disturbing ancestor
- Curwen keeps his youth and his secrets
- Respectable Providence decides to raid the farm
- A portrait and hidden papers draw Ward in
- Strange sounds and rumors spread from the attic
- Blood, knowledge and the limits of curiosity
- The story is told through documents and doubt
Who’s who
- Charles Dexter WardA Providence antiquarian who searches for his hidden ancestor and follows a trail of old papers into dangerous study.
- Dr. Marinus Bicknell WillettThe Ward family doctor, who tries to understand his young patient's change and follows the evidence wherever it leads.
- Joseph CurwenA colonial merchant who looks young for decades and pursues forbidden knowledge in his Pawtuxet farm laboratory.
- Theodore Howland WardCharles's father, a practical cotton manufacturer who wants to protect his son and his household from what he cannot name.
- Ezra WeedenA ship's officer who loses his fiancée to Curwen and spends years gathering proof against him.
- Dr. AllenA bearded stranger in dark glasses who shares Ward's Pawtuxet bungalow and speaks with an unforgettable hollow voice.
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Il caso di Charles Dexter Ward
by H. P. Lovecraft · 1941
A young Providence antiquarian digs up his wizard ancestor's portrait, and the face staring back is his own.
Challenging5–10 hours to readItaliano
Excellent
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In short
A young man vanishes from a private hospital near Providence, Rhode Island, and nobody sees how he leaves. His window opens on a sheer sixty-foot drop.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A doctor fears the freedom of his patient
The book opens at the end of the case. Charles Dexter Ward has been committed by his father to a private hospital. His body has changed in strange ways. His breathing and heartbeat keep no steady rhythm, and he can make no sound above a whisper. His madness matches nothing in even the latest medical texts.
One man seems truly afraid. Dr. Willett has watched Ward grow since the day he was born. He was the last person to see the patient before the escape. Afterward, the attendants open the door on an empty room.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1941
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Lovecraft, H. P. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-case-of-charles-dexter-ward.
Lovecraft, H. P. (2026). The case of Charles Dexter Ward. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-case-of-charles-dexter-ward (Original work published 1941)
Lovecraft, H. P. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-case-of-charles-dexter-ward.
@book{lovecraft2026case,
author = {Lovecraft, H. P.},
title = {The Case of Charles Dexter Ward},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-case-of-charles-dexter-ward},
note = {First published 1941}
}
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What is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward about?
It follows a Providence youth who finds a hidden ancestor, Joseph Curwen, and is drawn into the old man's secret studies. His family doctor investigates through letters, diaries and clippings as the young man's behavior and appearance change.
Who is Joseph Curwen in the story?
Curwen is Ward's great-great-great-grandfather, a colonial Providence merchant who stays strangely young for decades. He keeps a laboratory at his Pawtuxet farm and studies forbidden books, until townsmen raid the place in 1771.
Is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward a true story?
No, it is fiction, though it uses real Providence streets, institutions and colonial figures such as John Brown and Stephen Hopkins. Lovecraft wrote it in the late 1920s as a weird tale rooted in his home city.
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.
More by H. P. Lovecraft
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