Charles Dexter Ward’s father forcibly committed him to a private mental hospital, and though only twenty-six years old, a baffling illness has aged Charles beyond his years. None of the doctors can agree when he became insane but the changes are more than just mental, but physical as well. In spite of these observations, Charles was calmly waiting for his release, but surprisingly, one night he disappeared. His escape was a mystery since the window in his room has more than a sixty foot drop to the ground. He has not been seen and his condition and whereabouts are unknown.

No one could have predicted that Charles would have been committed, or what would lead him down that path. As a boy, Charles had an interest in the past, and when he discovered an ancestor, Joseph Curwen, with an evil reputation, Charles decided to find out everything about him. Researching an ancestor is not usually dangerous even though there were endless rumors of people disappearing and odd sounds coming from Joseph’s farm. Then there was also the observation by the town that Joseph appeared to have stopped aging. At first Charles’s interest seemed innocent enough but it turned into an obsession about Joseph, and Charles is drawn into a web that he may not be able to escape. The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft tells the story of Charles’s descent into madness, and the truth behind Joseph’s power. Written in 1928 the story reflects the attitudes of the time, but it also is filled with the menace and the threat of an evil that will not die.