Fascinated by history, young Charles Dexter Ward begins to delve into the life and activities of his ancestor, Joseph Curwen, who had a reputation as a researcher of dark secrets and a sorcerer. In his research, he goes a step too far, endangering not only his own life and sanity but also the lives of others.
The brevity of the above plot outline does not convey the true wealth of details in Lovecraft's longest work of fiction. The case of Charles Dexter Ward astonishes with an abundance of details, especially concerning the history of Providence (some Lovecraft scholars even argue that the main character is not Charles Dexter Ward but the meticulously depicted hometown of the author). The idea for the work had been on the writer's mind for a year. Initially, Lovecraft wanted to write a novel about Salem, but in September 1925, after reading a historical treatise on Providence titled "Providence in Colonial Times," his imagination was so ignited that he changed the setting to his hometown. The main theme of "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is a reworking of the subject from "The Tomb" (which Lovecraft later revisits in "The Thing on the Doorstep").