Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King would pee his pants
Review: I usually don't enjoy reading horror novels but the intelligence and master story telling of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward was amazing. It is a short novel, yet brings all the suspense and tingly feelings of the spine that will chill a reader's heart in the late night. With Halloween coming up, this novel is the one to read. It deals with a magician in the early colonial days of Salem, Massachusetts and his descendent in the near present and how the two intertwine in the story. Lovecraft's style is scarier in the things he doesn't reveal than with the things he does and proves that he doesn't need gore and graphic depictions to frighten the readers. This novel is a must read!
Rating:
Summary: Charlie D Ward
Review: Like Poe, H.P. Lovecraft was a tortured soul. Raised by his grandmother, H.P. led a cloistered life. Filling his isolated imagination with dark dense fantasies of a doomed humanity cursed by forces it cannot control, we (his audience) can almost smell the paranoia. Like Poe, it is a blessing-- he was a brilliant writer that left us with a complex vision of supernatural horror and spiritual dislocation.
"The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is undoubtedly his masterpiece-- not to be missed by anyone who thinks horror writing is a joke or an art best left to disturbed nerds.
Rating:
Summary: The best Lovecraft has to offer
Review: Long one of my favorite horror stories (I remember reading it at age 13 one night and keeping one eye on the corners of my room), the main thing to remember about this novella is that it was written in the 1920's. I mention this because some of the plot elements could be seen as trite and overused given the wealth of modern horror literature. Some of the previous reviewers have alluded to the rather plodding pace at the beginning but once the character of J. Curwen is introduced you literally will not be able to put the book down. Even the rather slow start of the story is very entertaining (esspecially the glowing language Lovecraft uses to describe Ward's ramblings in Providence - clearly Lovecraft has a special kinship for the historian in the book's title character). The story itself is compelling and foreshadows many plot elements that were to become horror mainstays in later years. Interestingly, the typical Lovecraftian mythos here are not the central object of the story, but merely mentioned almost in passing. Curwen - his diabolical use of his young descendent, the noble yet hopelessly naive Ward and the brave Dr. Willet have all become horror archetypes. While these characterizations could be considered wooden and almost one dimensional, they none the less fit the mood and "feel" of the story perfectly. Lovecraft also treats the reader to well crafted details. The small, minor details and difficulties Curwen experiences in 'modern' day Providence illustrates this perfectly. Curwen's detailed and yet still mysterious history and the town's efforts to expunge his evil from their community are a gripping joy to read and re-read.
Rating:
Summary: Intense in the old-school horror style
Review: Lovecraft definitely proves his worth as a flat-out horror writer with this tale of necromancy, intergenerational creepiness, and New England spookery. Modern readers will find it more Blair-Witch style scary than Freddy/Jason style gruesome, but in my book that can be a good thing. (And for you purists, yeah, it's much better than BWP, I'm just trying to draw an analogy here.) The one big fault to be found is that an alert fan may be able to guess the ending before it's time, but that's not strictly old H.P.'s fault, but more to be laid at the feet of the hordes of imitators who have made some of his best ideas into cliches.
Rating:
Summary: A good old fashioned creep out!
Review: Lovecraft shows a mastery of subtly in this book, building suspense and terror little by little, page by page, until by the end you are convinced that it did happen and that it might still be happening. Almost all the horror happens right where it should: between your ears. This not a slasher/gore story, it's a creepy, dark, disturbed descent into madness.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing, the end makes you read the start all over again!
Review: Ok I'll admit that it took me a while to get itno this book. The story of Charles was plodding along at a steady pace until he started work in the attic. From that moment on you just can't put the book down, every page is vital to the plot and it thunders along until the ultimate conclusion which is so brilliently linked to the opening pages that I was left with a satisfaction unlike any other I've experienced in any book I have read. Well worth the effort.
Rating: 
Summary: Lovecraft primer
Review: One of Lovecraft's most coherent novellas and, consequently, a quick and enjoyable read. Lovecraft manages to invoke a deliciously lugubrious atmosphere without resorting to the tiresome adjective-wringing that swallows whole his lesser work. More plot-heavy than most of his tales, "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" still contains all the standard Lovecraft arcana: the aboriginal elder gods; a troubled, "sensitive" hero/victim; inbred keepers of an unspeakable secret. This, however, is decidedly lighter than, say, "The Dunwich Horror" or "Colour out of Space," which makes it a good starting point for anyone willing to dive into Lovecraft's obtuse canon
Rating:
Summary: One of the best Lovecraft tales
Review: Others have summarized the plot of this excellent story better than I can; I just wanted to mention two things: this is one of, if not the longest Lovecraft work (and the best-structured of his longer works), and it was made (adapted) into a fair-to-middling movie called The Haunted Palace in the early 60's, starring Vincent Price and, I believe, Debra Padgett. I think they had run out of Poe stories.
Rating:
Summary: all of Lovecraft's books and stories are excellent!
Review: Read 'em all! They beat the hell out of anything being written today. Stephen King and Clive Barker and them got nothing on ole H.P. And what's more, they all have a strong moral tone to them, which is a big plus in my book.
Rating:
Summary: A lovecraftian gem
Review: The Case of Charles dexter Ward -which remained unpublished during H. P. L. 's lifetime- is certainly one of the most readable and enjoyable efforts of the old gentleman from Providence, even for people who are not addicted to "Call of Cthulhu" role-playing games and similar items about which Grandpa Theobald would probably have been both rather amused and irritated. The story, unfolding slowly but with an ever increasing pace, revolves around the uncanny relation between one Charles Dexter Ward -a young antiquarian of an old Providence family, quite an alter ego of Lovecraft himself- and his ancestor Joseph Curwen, a Salem warlock from the 17th century. The descriptions of old Providence and its surroundings are exceedingly beautiful and graphic and reveal much of H. P. L. 's affection for his hometown. The story, of course, also has its great moments of cosmic fear, and the accounts of the good people of Providence's raid against Joseph Curwen and that of Dr. Willett, the avuncular and benevolent medical doctor of Ward's family, descending into the sheer abyss of horror (without even a drop of blood being splattered) belong to the most frightening and effective episodes in all of horror literature. Lovecraft delves deeply into occult lore and black magic, much more so than in most of his other stories, where he mainly relies on some name-dropping, usually of the Great Old Ones and his own invented grimoires (like the Necronomicon & Cie.) to provide a touch of witchcraft, but he does it with utmost effectiveness, in total contrast to many of his contemporaries (and successors). The reason for this is certainly that he was a complete non-believer concerning anything supernatural. The way the ever increasing atmosphere of threat and madness is built up is masterful, even though the end of the story is not really a surprise for an intelligent reader (especially anyone used to Lovecraft's work, which almost never offers that kind of thrill, "The shadow over Innsmouth" being probably the only noteworthy exception). Nevertheless he manages to keep a tantalizing amount of uncertainty for quite a while, much more so than, e. g., in the much-admired "The shadow out of time". The so-called Cthulhu Mythos plays only a very minor role in "The Case". To give an example -for those cthulhuoid guys out there- I fully agree with S. T. Joshi who once admitted that he never could really figure out what Yog-Sothoth exactly meant in this novel (does anybody know what it really meant in any H. P. L. story, by the way ? I don't talk about August Derleth's and Lin Carter's kids and grannies versions of the Mythos, which have become so well-liked by most of the would-be Lovecraftians. Except for Cthulhu himself, H. P. L. always kept a veil over the deities of his pantheon). The novel offers everything you can excpect from the undoubted master of the macabre in the 20th century, suspense, chills & thrills and all-out horror, but in a subtler and more convincing way than in most of his earlier and some of his later works. A recommendable book for everybody interested in good, well-(love)crafted horror stories, and certainly not only of historical interest.
| 
