THE READING RHEUM: "THE CASE OF CHARLES DEXTER WARD" (1927/1941)

 

For convenience's sake I read the above Belmont paperback edition and then read through Klinger's annotations on the book. I noted that most of said notes talked about all of the antiquarian accuracy that HPL poured into this short novel-- which meant very little to me, given that I think all that detail hurt the story.

For me as a reader, WARD inverts all the strengths of CTHULHU's gradual detective-style revelation of a great mystery. WARD uses much the same structure and approach, but the story broadcasts the Big Reveal on the first page, talking about a magic ritual that can bring back "any dead Ancestour." The titular Ward, born in 1902, becomes enthralled with the legend of his sorcery-using, 18th-century ancestor Joseph Curwen, and accidentally revives Curwen's spirit, which then usurps Ward's body. Ward's doctor intrepidly discovers the truth and destroys the body Curwen inhabits.

HPL wasn't entirely without ability to create at least broad characterization, but he utterly fails to make Ward (a probable self-insert) even as interesting as Henry Wilcox from CTHULHU. Doctor Willett is no better, and Ward's unnamed parents are only brought in to serve very limited plot functions. For me WARD has only two distinctions, aside from inspiring loose film adaptations like 1963's HAUNTED PALACE:

(1) WARD is the first text to mention the Old One Yog-Sothoth, though only as a name within a mystic chant.

(2) There's a brief mention of a "Sign of Koth," which receives a little more expansion in DREAM QUEST. Robert E Howard used Koth as a place-name in the Conanverse, and in the 1930s tales of the comic-book hero "Doctor Occult," writer Jerry Siegel used the name for the titular hero's villain.

I guess I should also add that HPL may have been having some fun by portraying his self-insert as unwise for having invested so much time and energy into his antiquarian pursuits, since they bring about his doom. At the same the story may have been primarily a method by which HPL could share his passion for New England history with readers, though WARD wasn't published until after HPL's passing.