The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
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The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a novella by H. P. Lovecraft written in early 1927, set in Lovecraft's hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. It was first published (in abridged form) in the May and July issues of Weird Tales in 1941 under the title The Madness Out of Time; the first complete publication was in Arkham House's Beyond the Wall of Sleep collection (1943).
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[edit] Inspiration
In August 1925, Lovecraft's Aunt Lillian sent him an anecdote about the house at 140 Prospect Street in Providence. Lovecraft wrote back: "So the Halsey house is haunted! Ugh! That's where Wild Tom Halsey kept live terrapins in the cellar--maybe it's their ghosts. Anyway, it's a magnificent old mansion, & a credit to a magnificent old town!"[1] Lovecraft would make this house--renumbered as 100 Prospect--the basis for the Ward house in Charles Dexter Ward.
The following month, September 1925, Lovecraft read Providence in Colonial Times, by Gertrude Selwyn Kimball, a 1912 history that provided him with aspects of Charles Dexter Ward, such as the anecdotes about John Merritt and Dr. Checkley.[2]
A possible literary model is Walter de la Mare's novel The Return (1910), which Lovecraft read in mid-1926. He describes it in "Supernatural Horror in Literature" as a tale in which "we see the soul of a dead man reach out of its grave of two centuries and fasten itself on the flesh of the living".[3]
The theme of a descendant who closely resembles a distant ancestor may come from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The House of the Seven Gables, which Lovecraft called "New England's greatest contribution to weird literature" in his essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature".[4]
Another proposed literary source is M. R. James' short story "Count Magnus", also praised in "Supernatural Horror in Literature", which suggests the resurrection of a sinister 17th century figure.[5]
[edit] Reaction
Lovecraft was displeased with the novel, calling it a "cumbrous, creaking bit of self-conscious antiquarianism".[6] He made little effort to publish the work, leaving it to be published posthumously in Weird Tales by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei.
[edit] Synopsis
The titular character, Charles Dexter Ward, is a young man from a prominent family who (in the story's introduction) is said to have disappeared after a prolonged period of insanity accompanied by minor but unheard-of physiological changes. The bulk of the story concerns the investigation conducted by the Ward's family doctor, Marinus Bicknell Willett, in an attempt to discover the reason for Ward's psychological and physiological changes. When Willett learns that Ward had spent the past several months attempting to discover the grave of his ill-reputed ancestor, Joseph Curwen, Willett slowly begins to unravel the truth behind the legends surrounding Curwen, a shipping entrepreneur rumored to have been an alchemist, but in reality a megalomanical necromancer and mass-murderer. Because much of the plot is revealed in letters, documents, and anecdotes discovered by both Ward and Willett, the action switches back and forth from the present-day to the 18th century.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Charles Dexter Ward
Ward is born in 1902; he is 26 in 1928, at the time the story takes place.
Though considered one of Lovecraft's autobiographical characters, some details of the character seem to be based on William Lippitt Mauran, who lived in the Halsey house and, like Ward, was "wheeled...in a carriage" in front of it. Like the Wards, the Maurans also owned a farmhouse in Pawtuxet, Rhode Island.[7]
[edit] Joseph Curwen
Ward's ancestor, he flees to Providence from the Salem witch trials in 1692. He dies, at least temporarily, in 1771.
[edit] Marinus Bicknell Willett
An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia compares Willett's character to other "valiant counterweight[s]" in Lovecraft such as Thomas Malone in "The Horror at Red Hook" (1925)[8] and Henry Armitage in "The Dunwich Horror"; like Willett, Armitage "defeats the 'villains' by incantations, and he is susceptible to the same flaws--pomposity, arrogance, self-importance--that can be seen in Willett."[9]
[edit] Cthulhu Mythos
Charles Dexter Ward contains the first mention of the Cthulhu Mythos entity Yog-Sothoth, who appears repeatedly as an element in an incantation. Joseph Curwen is the owner of a copy of the Necronomicon (disguised as a book labelled Qanoon-e-Islam) and there are hints of cult activities in a fishing village that refer obliquely to the events narrated in The Festival.
Brian Lumley expanded on the character of Baron Ferenczy, mentioned but never met in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, in his Necroscope series.
[edit] Adaptations
- In 1963, Roger Corman filmed a loose adaptation of the story, The Haunted Palace, starring Vincent Price.
- In 1992, Dan O'Bannon filmed a more faithful adaptation, The Resurrected, starring John Terry and Chris Sarandon.
- In 2001, DreamCatcher Interactive Inc. published a videogame adaptation for the PC (developed by Wanadoo Edition) under the name Necronomicon: The Dawning of Darkness. All the character's names from the book were changed, as well as the ending.
[edit] Publications
- At the Mountains of Madness, and Other Novels (hardcover), S. T. Joshi (ed.), Sauk City, WI: Arkham House, 1985. ISBN 0-870-54038-6. Definitive version.
- The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (paperback) published by Del Rey, ISBN 0-345-35490-7.
[edit] External links
- The H. P. Lovecraft Archive includes additional information and photographs
- "Sources of Necromancy in Charles Dexter Ward", The Cthulhu Mythos: A Guide.
- The Haunted Palace (1963) at Internet Movie Database
- The Resurrected (1992) at Internet Movie Database
