The Home of Charles Dexter Ward
Happy Belated 122nd. Birthday Grandpa Theobald!
In my mind, H. P. Lovecraft’s, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, reads more like a work of non-fiction, rater than fiction; and because of this, I hope you’ll listen to my reading and performances as an audio documentary with reenactments by all of the voices that have escaped from my head, and been brought to audio life, including Marinus, Theodore, Joseph, Charles, Jedediah/Simon, Edward, and several others.
For those wondering what a multi-voice version of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward being performed by William E. Hart sounds like, I’ve prepared a teaser file, in a scrambled order, to give you a taste of what you will find in the five chapters of this story. For better or for worse, depending on how you like audiobooks read for you, this is The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, like you’ve never heard it before:
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Multi-Voice Teaser
The text I’ve used for this reading is from the beautifully corrected version available at hplovecraft.com at http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cdw.asp
I’ve also have a pdf version of the text here as a backup copy, just in case there is a problem reaching hplovecraft.com:
Please let me know here, in comments, what you think of the readings and performances; I can also be reached directly at “willhart at roadunner dot com” if you mention Lovecraft in the Subject line.
This entire tale has made its appearance just in time to be ready for Halloween candle-light listening!
This reading, including the performance sections that will drive him crazy, is dedicated to The Queen of Eldritch Horror, Wilum H. Pugmire; whom I am sure, is the illegitimate cosmic Lovechild of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert H. Barlow, Oscar Wilde, Quentin Crisp, and Joseph Smith, Jr.(!), born out of a very strange encounter in a dimension outside time and space, and officiated by Nyarlathotep.
NOTE: If you do a normal click on the MP3 file links in this post, WordPress will play them for you.
If you’d like to download and save the files for yourself, and you are using a PC, right-click, to bring up the right-click menu and use the “Save Link As” function to save the MP3 files to your hard drive.
If you’d like to download and save the files for yourself, and you are using a Mac, I believe that would be ctrl + Click to bring up the right click menu, and use the “Download Linked File” function to save the MP3 files to your hard drive. I don’t own a Mac so please correct me if I am wrong!
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 01 (Section 1 of 2)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 01 (Section 2 of 2)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 01 Complete (Sections 1 and 2)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 02 (Section 1 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 02 (Section 2 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 02 (Section 3 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 02 (Section 4 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 02 (Section 5 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 02 (Section 6 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 02 Complete (Sections 1-6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 03 (Section 1 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 03 (Section 2 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 03 (Section 3 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 03 (Section 4 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 03 (Section 5 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 03 (Section 6 of 6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 03 Complete (Sections 1-6)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 04 (Section 1 of 4)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 04 (Section 2 of 4)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 04 (Section 3 of 4)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 04 (Section 4 of 4)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 04 Complete (Sections 1-4)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 (Section 1 of 7)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 (Section 2 of 7)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 (Section 3 of 7)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 (Section 4 of 7)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 (Section 5 of 7)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 (Section 6 of 7)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 (Section 7 of 7)
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward Chapter 05 Complete (Sections 1-7)
For those interested in the final running times and MP3 file sizes for the single-file versions of each chapter, they are as follows:
Chapter One: Twenty-three minutes and twenty-six seconds, in 43MB.
Chapter Two: Seventy-four minutes and twenty-four seconds, in 136MB.
Chapter Three: Sixty-three minutes and twenty-seven seconds, in 116MB.
Chapter Four: Fifty-seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds, in 105MB.
Chapter Five: Eighty-eight minutes and fifty-eight seconds, in 162MB.
For a combined running time total of five hours, seven minutes, and fifty-three seconds.
Yours in Eldritch Phantasies,
William E. Hart
aka CthulhuWho1
ps
It’s going to take quite some time, but I’ll next be building a visual version of each chapter for posting on YouTube.
CthulhuWho1's Blog 
I’ve really enjoyed your readings thus far. Can you tell when you expect the remainder of Dexter Ward will be available?
My Dear Friend,
I am flattered indeed that you are enjoying my reading so far!
And I can promise you, that nobody wants all of it posted more than I do; so I can then create the visual versions for YouTube, and finally move on to other important projects in my life!
But the clean-up and volume tweaking are taking (as mentioned above) at least two days per section (and in many cases three), so the best I can promise is that I’ll try to get Chapter 3 Section 3 up tomorrow (18-Sep); and each of the rest of them up as quickly as I can finish the edits to my satisfaction.
Part of my editing relates to my desire to get maximum and even volumes for each of the chapters over all of their sections, so they will play back consistently in CD format later when I start making CD’s from my original wav files.
It’s taking far longer than I want it to, but in the end, I believe this project will be something I can be proud of for many years to come; and hopefully will be enjoyed by others long after I’m gone!
Will
Thanks for the response. As impressive as your final products have been thus far, please by all means, take all the time you need to keep up with the wonderful quality! I am (and I’m sure others are) looking forward to it!
Pingback: The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward By H. P. Lovecraft « Lily Wight
Great job, even better than last time! And this story is one of my favourite Lovecraft stories. I really like the combination of pseudo-science and the supernatural and the logical consequences of a network of immortal necromancers trading ‘essential salts’ among themselves.
Many thanks for your hard work! 🙂
Thank You very much for giving the voices in my head a chance to entertain you too.
I believe you are the first to publicly admit having listened to the entire reading!
And you are very Welcome!
I’m slowly working on putting together my YouTube visual version of the tale; that will be entertaining on multiple levels, and in ways the audio can’t be by itself.
After that, I’ve got to go back and fix the modulation on my version of The Hound; I was shocked when I listened to it recently and heard how bad the volume was fluctuating up and down. Maybe I’m learning…
Hey William, this is great stuff. I’m only at the part where Curwen takes over CDW’s identity in full but you’re really bringing this story to life. CDW is one of my favourites and you’re doing it justice.
My Lovecraftian Audio Friend Pat,
I thank you for your compliment of my Charles Dexter Ward reading/performance, and I also want to Thank You for taking the time to listen and comment.
My track record on my web sites (with over 450,000 clicks) shows that I get one comment for roughly every 3300 clicks; so you are a rare person, and I truly appreciate your kind words.
Even my wife got a kick out of your response!
Thank You Again,
and I hope you’ll help yourself to my other audio files too!
Will
ps
I’ve added you to my mailing list for future notices.
I just finished listening to it. Great job. I liked your portrayal of Willett – he’s tougher with the right accent than he comes across in text.
I really like the pacing of CDW – the early climax of the assault on Curwen’s tower sets the stage for Willett’s ultimate confrontation with Curwen well and gives the intervening story a lot more import. AtMoM is more one big slow build, but CDW plays differently with the two notable peaks of tension. I actually think CDW would make a good movie.
Pat, Thank You for calling my effort a “Great Job!” And I also Thank You for getting back to me after you finished listening; and for helping to spread the word over on Reddit!
I wonder if you noticed, the one single, rather humorous line that caused me to make Dr. Willet a Southern Doctor, and one who might have a need for a bit of a restorative drink or two?
In Dr. Willet’s 12-April-1928 letter to Theodore (Charles Ward’s father), he states, “I am going South for a while to calm down and brace up.”
I loved the “going South” reference, indicating to me that he was from there and heading back home for a bit; and I chuckled at the down-up reference, while believing that the “calm down and brace up” could mean that he was going to do some serious drinking!
Perhaps this isn’t what Lovecraft (the non-drinker) had in mind, but it’s the way my mind read it.
Pingback: H. P. Lovecraft’s, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, Chapter 1, is Now on YouTube | CthulhuWho1's Blog
Thanks! I’m currently rereading Lovecraft, and it’s nice having an audiobook version to listen to while making dinner!
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