Hello everyone and welcome back to the Dream Cycle Book Club. This week we will be discussing the first three parts of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
Our reading for this week will be parts IV and V of The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, thus finishing the story. The text, collated as part of a collection by The Arkham Archivist, is found here. An audio recording by the talented HorrorBabble can be found here.
The image is a portrait of Vincent Price who played the role of Charles Dexter Ward/Joseph Curwen in the 1963 film The Haunted Palace. Art credit goes to Shayu Dan
Part III is titled A Search and an Evocation. It details Charles Ward's quest to uncover the information revealed in part II, and his continuation of Curwen's work.
Ward, now 17, is intrigued by the mystery of a lost ancestor and takes to researching at libraries and archives spanning the entirety of New England. He comes across undestroyed diaries of witnesses and private correspondences between Curwen and other necromancer friends. One notable friend is a Samuel Orne, posing as his son Jebediah at the time of the particular letter. Understanding that his unnatural lack of ageing will raise suspicion, Orne goes on long journeys, returning decades later as his "son" with a will from Samuel bequeathing his estate to Jebediah. Curwen laments at his inability to do this due to the need to manage his shipping business.
Ward is excited to learn that Curwen's manor at the time of his death still stands. He bribes the family living there in order to gain access to the house. He is disappointed at the state of disrepair of the once grand manor and the apparent lack of care by the current owner. He knows from his research that Curwen had a portrait in this house. He finds a peculiar wall and tests it with his knife. He finds evidence of an oil painting painted onto the panelling of the wall and thus bribes the owner for him to have the newer layers of paint stripped.
It is now that Ward comes face to face with his long lost ancestor. He is shocked to find that Curwen bears an uncanny likeness to himself. He brings his parents to view the painting. His father is astonished and pays to have the painting removed and reinstalled at the Ward household.
Behind the removed painting, Ward finds a curious small hole in the wall. Inside the wall he finds a diary and a note left "To Him Who Shal(sic) Come After." Comparing the handwriting to other pieces, Ward confirms this to be the writing of Curwen.
He begins his singular task of researching Curwen. His schoolwork slips though he still passes his classes, thus not arousing concern from his parents. Upon graduating, Ward declares that he will not attend university, for Curwen's notes hint at scientific discoveries that he could not achieve through a classical education. Curwen becomes obsessed with finding the grave of Curwen, as he finds evidence of its location relative to another grave.
At 21, Ward embarks on a 4 year journey across Europe, where he will continue his studies under the supervision of great European minds. Upon returning at 26, Ward claims the garret of the family manor to himself and forbids entrance to all others. Here he conducts chemical experiments and produces bangs and noises that frighten his mother and servants.
One night he sneaks out and returns with a gang of men in a motor car. They bear a heavy oblong container up the stairs and Ward continues his studies. His mother later reads about a disturbance at a local cemetery. The site is not on the groundskeeper's record of burials, thus he surmises that the disturbance was a brilliant scheme by bootleggers to hide contraband.
The sounds in the garret reach their crescendo, with Ward shouting a continuous evocation. His mother investigates and is horrified to recognise the evocation as that carried on the wind in the record of the nighttime raid over 150 years ago. Ward's father returns to find his wife passed out near the door to the garret, and a whispering occurring inside. The smell is terrible. When Ward appears, his manner is apparently changed. His father says that the limit has been reached on his experiments in the house. Ward agrees and says that he needs only read now, with further experiments conducted away from the house when needed.
The way that Ward appears changed from the attic, I believe at this point that he has become possessed by Curwen, who he has disinterred from his unmarked grave. I find it a bit comical how disconnected and apathetic his parents seem to be. It's fair enough that he's declared he shan't be attending university, but for a reason he states he is conducting private research which would stump even Einstein. No matter how brilliant they reckon their child is, they should have steered him away from this research years ago.