Rating: 
Summary: Lovecraft's most accessible horror tale
Review: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward has long been one of my favorite books. Charles Ward is an intellectual young recluse steeped in antiquarianism (much as Lovecraft himself was) who discovers horrible secrets about a distant ancestor, one consciously expunged from public records and histories at the end of his ill-begotten life. Ward engulfs himself in a genealogical and historical pursuit of knowledge of this man, a passion all the more emblazoned by each mysterious discovery he makes. This ancestor, Joseph Curwen, was reputably a dabbler in the black arts who fled from Salem in advance of the remarkable witchcraft trials in that town. Finding refuge in Providence, he lived a reclusive, mysterious life, made even more mysterious by his eternally youthful appearance. A recluse by nature, he spent most nights at a farmhouse in Pawtuxet. A continuing series of terrible cries and noises detected from that farmhouse, in conjunction with a number of missing locals and rumors of brutality against Negro slaves surreptitiously brought to that abode culminated in a raid by local citizens determined to put an end to whatever monstrous acts the strange man was committing. No member of that raiding party ever dared discuss what he saw or heard during that awful night. Ward's knowledge of Curwen is greatly advanced when he discovers an old painting of him (revealing a face virtually identical to his own) and a set of personal papers hidden behind that painting. He then launches into terrible studies of the occult at home and abroad, then returns home to put to use the arcane secrets he has learned. His doctor and father eventually grasp the nature of Ward's actions and unite themselves in a determination to block Joseph Curwen's ancient ambitions and plans to once more walk the earth with the aid of his great-great-great grandson. The horrors they encounter in the pursuit of this objective are richly described and deliciously gruesome. This story is pretty much straight horror with no deeply mythological overtones beyond those of necromancy. Lovecraft does an excellent job of always pushing the action along while providing a rich, deep, historical background of both Curwen and young Charles Ward. The ending chapter contains some of Lovecraft's most terror-inducing, menacingly evil scenes and is not to be missed by those with a gratuitous admiration for the macabre. For those readers who find the Cthulhu Mythos stories too strangely remote and otherworldly, this novella provides a more practical, more individualistic vision of horror sure to affect the reader more viscerally than do mysterious references to the Ancient Ones. Anyone considering reading Lovecraft for the first time would do well to make this book his introduction to the master of horror. This is everything a horror story should be.
Rating:
Summary: Yog-Sothoth......
Review: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a classic weird tale reminiscent of Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan, though perhaps exceeding Machen's novel in imaginative power. The first part of the story moves slowly, providing much of the necessary background information and detailing Charles Ward's preliminary delving into some of the sinister aspects of his ancestry. But momentum quickly builds with each horror that is uncovered and each question raised by the equivocal and disturbing events that occur near and within the city of Providence; i.e what could be the origin of those putrid stenches and unaccountable gibbering and sloshing noises? And then some delightfully fiendish and hideous strangers appear on the scene, and are quickly suspected of more gruesome activities.... Charles Dexter Ward is one of Lovecraft's best, wherein he triumphantly achieves what he sets out to do - create an effective atmosphere of terror and dread, where ancient and unspoken beings and forces dwell behind the scenes of everyday life. Overall, this is a very enjoyable read. I wish I had discovered it sooner. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Lovecraft's Best!
Review: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward ranks as one of Lovecraft's best stories he ever wrote. Unlike some of Lovecraft's other stories, which are nothing more than incoherent ramblings about elder gods and old ones, this short novel actually has a plot, and is very engrossing. While at first the novel seems quite straightforward and almost boring, there soon comes many different plot twists, all of which kept me guessing until the very end. And also, unlike other Lovecraft tales, this one wrapped up in the end, with a decent conclusion. You have to read this novel in order to see Lovecraft's fiction at it's best.
Rating: 
Summary: Obsolete Viewpoint
Review: The impact of this novel is materially diminished by its reliance on obsolete paradigms of the previous century. Science seeks to reanimate creatures of the past not with incantations, wall inscriptions and the usual mumbo gumbo of witchcraft and sorcery, but with the information storing capacity of DNA macromolecules and cellular implants. In Lovecraft's works, as in certain scriptural references, matter is endowed only with minimal capacities to create the inorganic realm - but living creatures need to have the influence of nonmaterial spiritual influences from BEYOND. Lovecraft hints at methods and materials used in the "experiments" he describes, but relies too heavily on "fancy" language to create atmosphere...a practice losing its impact after frequent repetition. His work would have proved prophetic if he invisioned the capacity of inanimate matter to link free energy with self-organizing potential. Beyond these failures of prescience, the novel also exhibits artistic failures: the plot develops much too slowly......the material would have fit more comfortably in a short story or a novelette....... it seems H. P. might have started writing a handbook for tour guides of Providence, R. I. and took a sudden turn on Route 2 in Cranston - that excursion being included is an obvious diversion from the main story line. The reader might also consider an amusing thought postcard of the of the REAL Providence and its appeal - consisting until recent times - mainly of sidewalk art of prostrate bodies, crowds of pan-handling bums, or rats scurrying about freely in daylight along the canal. In spite of these comments I would recommend this book. Read this volume and then go for a walk in the environs described therein ---watch out for ..."shunned culverts, hideously dark - wherein lurk formless masses rubbing softly in the depths...evoking delerious thoughts of sodden, ravenous rats....."
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Summary: Lovecraft invents the horror genre: "It can really happen!"
Review: This book is truly for those who can imagine! Don't expect to find words describing the unspeakable horror for this is truly a work which employs the creativity of imagination to evoke the chill of dread at discovery of quintessential evil. Though I read this book more than 20 years ago, I still feel the bristle of goose flesh when I recall the descent into the final depth of the depravity of Charles Wards' infamous ancestor. Know the answer to what turns one's hair white prematurely!
Rating:
Summary: Buy It!
Review: This book treats with confusions ,terror and magic.
This is the type of book that when you read it for the second time you notice little diferences,but important enough to change your point of view about the tale.
You will be scared at the end of the tale and surprised.
Rating:
Summary: It just doesn't get any better than this
Review: This is HPL's greatest work, bar none. One thing that sets it apart from many other HPL stories is that the antagonist isn't an ill-defined cosmic menace or alien monster, but merely a man. Merely? Well, he's a man that knows way too much about the universe and he's such an indescribable creep that the full extent of his plans don't even become apparant until after a few readings. May B.F. rest in peace, and so may C.D.W.
Rating:
Summary: Lovecraft at his finest
Review: This is one of THE Lovecraft stories to read alongside The Call of Cthulhu, At the Mountains of Madness, The Dunwich Horror, and The Shadow Over Innsmouth. No one writes horror like Lovecraft. His cold and analytical style somehow makes his works even more terrifying. It may be the shock of the rational scientific minds of his character's seeing something that goes beyond explanation that makes his stories so jolting, or the horrifying results of what happens to those rational, scientific, and inquisitive characters, like Charles Dexter Ward, who seek the truth and discover too much of it. But maybe the reason Lovecraft is so scary is because all positive human emotions such as love are abandoned leaving only fear. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is chock full of fear and little else as it takes you through the paranoia of the American colonial days, through the degeneration of a young man's sanity, and through the ancient catacombs of an old house where something inhuman screams from the bottom of a pit. The mystery aspect of the story isn't too hard to figure out, but that may not have been so back in the 1930's when it was first written, but the journey is absolutely terrifying. Lovecraft puts pure fear on paper and that's something no modern horror writer I can think of has been able to do since.
Rating:
Summary: One of Lovecraft's best
Review: This novel is kind of different compared to the rest of Lovecraft's fiction. It is not directly focused on terrible, grothesque monsters, like so many other stories, but concentrate on the absolute evil of a man and his dark magic (witch, of course, has its source in the Mythos). The tale of how young Charles Dexter Ward is fooled by the promises of power offered him by evil forces, and of how the courageous doctor desperately tries to uncover the truth about the youth's physical and personal change will give you ice-cold shivers all the way through. The lenght of the novel gave Lovecraft the opportunity to develop more personal characters than in his shorter stories, and this provide the tale with a "real" touch, witch is quite rare when it comes to Lovecraft. I will not say more, but READ IT. If you're going to read just one of The Great Old One's stories, this is the one!
Rating:
Summary: Plausible and scary
Review: This story was among the scariest and yet most believable horror stories
I have read. Although I knew about 40 pages before the end how it was going to end, it was still a hair-raiser. Something to be savored more
than once (I've read it five times).
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