The Case of Charles Dexter Ward - Literary References

Literary References

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward contains reference to a number of books and authors, both real and fictitious. Most of them are presented in chapter II, when Joseph Curwen's 17th-century library is being inspected by Mr. Merrit. They include:

  • Paracelsus
  • Agricola
  • Van Helmont
  • Sylvius
  • Glauber
  • Boyle
  • Boerhaave
  • Becher
  • Stahl
  • Qanoon-e-Islam
  • Hermes Trismegistus (in Mesnard's edition)
  • Turba Philosophorum
  • Geber's Liber Investigationis
  • Artephius's Key of Wisdom
  • Zohar
  • Albertus Magnus (in Peter Jammy's edition)
  • Raymond Lully's Ars Magna et Ultima (in Zetsner's edition)
  • Roger Bacon's Thesaurus Chemicus
  • Fludd's Clavis Alchimiae
  • Trithemius's De Lapide Philosophico
  • the Necronomicon (fictional)

In a moment in which Dr. Willett's mind is confused and, trying to avert the influence of dark invocations by uttering the Lord's Prayer, he mixes them up, the result is described as "a mnemonic hodge-podge like the modernistic Waste Land of Mr. T. S. Eliot".

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