Some secrets are not meant to be resurrected.
When the young, cultured, and highly promising Charles Dexter Ward abruptly vanishes from his prominent Providence family home, the only evidence left behind is a trail of unsettling research and a baffling, sinister change in his personality.
His worried doctor and family begin to piece together Ward's obsessive investigations into his own ancestry, specifically his notorious 18th-century ancestor, Joseph Curwen--a brilliant but reviled sorcerer who fled Salem to practice gruesome, unspeakable rites in colonial Rhode Island.
As they delve deeper into Curwen's secrets, they uncover a hidden laboratory, cryptic alchemical notes, and the disturbing truth about Curwen's death... and his ultimate goals. Ward hasn't just been studying history; he has discovered the dark, terrifying method of reincarnation and necromancy.
The doctor soon realizes that Ward's disappearance is not a mystery of murder or madness, but a chilling case of possession. He is forced to confront the impossible: is the man who returned to the Ward house truly Charles, or is he a centuries-old sorcerer successfully resurrected and carrying on his gruesome, immortal work?
H. P. Lovecraft's only full-length novel is a masterful blend of gothic horror, historical mystery, and his signature cosmic dread.The Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a terrifying tale of ancestry, identity theft, and the forbidden power that lies in knowing the final words of the dead.