The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
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| "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" | |
| Author | H. P. Lovecraft |
|---|---|
| Country |  USA |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror short story |
| Published in | Weird Tales |
| Publication type | Periodical |
| Media type | Print (Magazine) |
| Publication date | May-July, 1941 |
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).
Contents |
[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 his essay "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 "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] Plot summary
The titular character, Charles Dexter Ward, is a young man from a prominent New England 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 Wards' 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 years 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. Charles eventually recovers Curwen's ashes, and through the use of magical formulae contained in documents found hidden in the wizard's former home, is able to call forth Curwen from his "essential salts" and resurrect him. Eventually, Curwen, who closely resembles Ward physically, murders and replaces his modern descendant and resumes his evil activities. Unfortunately for Curwen, due to culture shock he is unable to entirely successfully impersonate Ward - his lack of understanding of the modern world leads to him (as Ward) being certified insane and imprisoned in an asylum. While Curwen is locked up, Willett's continuing investigations lead him to discover a catacomb under the wizard's lair. During a horrific journey through this labyrinth Willet discovers the full truth about Curwen's horrible crimes and also the means of returning him to the grave. Armed with this knowlege, Willett confronts Curwen at the asylum and succeeds in reversing the spell, reducing the undead sorceror once again to dust. Much of the plot is revealed in letters, documents, and anecdotes discovered by both Ward and Willett.
[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 when he is killed in the course of a raid on his lair by a group of important Providence citizens who have got wind of only a few of his crimes. In his first life, Curwen was a successful merchant, shipping magnate and slave trader, and a highly accomplished sorceror. His magical powers are extensive. He has perfected a method of reducing the effects of aging so that by the time of his first death, when he was over a century old he still appeared a young man. He has the ability to raise the dead and converse with them, though to do so he must have the complete corpse which must be prepared in a special way to reduce it to the "essential salts". He is able to summon Mythos entities such as the god Yog-Sothoth to assist him in his magic, it also seems clear that he was able to find a way to create a spell that would transcend time and inspire a descendent to become interested in him and his work and attempt to bring him back should he ever be slain.
Curwen makes extensive use of the resurrection spell to gain historical and occult knowlege. To this end his agents scour the graveyards and tombs of the world for illustrious corpses which are then smuggled back to Providence where Curwen temporarily raises them and tortures their secrets out of them. In this endeavour he is assisted by two fellow necromancers and Salem exiles; Simon Orne, alias Joseph Nadeh, who lives in Prague, and Edward Hutchinson, who masquerades as Baron Ferenczy in Transylvania. These three, and an unknown accomplice in Philadelphia, are engaged in a vast conspiracy to use their ill-gotten knowlege to achieve ever greater powers for themselves.
When later resurrected by Ward, Curwen initially goes in disguise as "Dr. Allen" to avoid suspicion being aroused by his close resemblance to Ward. The undead Curwen shows vampiristic tendencies, attacking local travellers and breaking into houses to drink the blood of the inhabitants. It is not clear if this is a consequence of the spell or just a feature of Curwen himself for other reasons as the necessity for blood drinking is not otherwise mentioned as necessary to the operation of the magic. Curwen immediately makes contact with Orne and Hutchinson, who have been alive and active all the while, and starts up his old plots once again. He soon murders Ward when he starts having doubts about what they are doing and assumes his identity.
Curwen is a man of great cunning, foresight and intelligence, he is also a man of boundless arrogance and cruelty. Aside from his black magic and graverobbery, Curwen never hesitates to stoop to murder, torture or blackmail to achieve his ends, he also uses - and kills - vast numbers of living slaves as subjects for his experiments. He is, in sum, utterly evil.
[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". The story also contains references to the Dream Cycle: Dr. Willett notices the "Sign of Koth" chiselled above a doorway, and remembers his friend Randolph Carter drawing the sign and explaining its powers and meaning.
Brian Lumley expanded on the character of Baron Ferenczy, mentioned but never met in The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, in his Necroscope series, specifically Book IV: Deadspeak, where Janos Frenczy uses the Yog-Sothoth formula to call forth whole bodies from ash remains, and to return them to that state.
[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 0-87054-038-6. Definitive version.
- The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (paperback) published by Del Rey, ISBN 0-345-35490-7.
[edit] References
- ^ H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Lillian D. Clark, August 24, 1925; cited in S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Case of Charles Dexter Ward, The", An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 33.
- ^ Joshi and Schultz, p. 33.
- ^ Cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 33.
- ^ Joshi and Schultz, p. 107.
- ^ Richard Ward, "In Search of the Dread Ancestor", Lovecraft Studies No. 36 (Spring 1997); cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 131.
- ^ H. P. Lovecraft, letter to R. H. Barlow, March 19, 1934; cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 34.
- ^ Cited in Joshi and Schultz, p. 33.
- ^ Joshi and Schultz, p. 33.
- ^ S. T. Joshi and David E. Schultz, "Dunwich Horror, The", An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 81.
[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
