h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

Howl’s Moving Castle is a light and almost frivolous book, and therefore easy to take for granted. It starts off as a fairy-tale parody, with three daughters all knowing that the youngest is bound to have the most exciting and successful life. It continues with a wicked wizard, an evil witch, a prince, and a Mayday festival. The apparent triviality of the first 2 chapters disguises the way Jones is laying the scene for some pretty complex action later on. In fact almost everything that occurs in chapters 1 and 2 is essential for understanding the events and characters as they progress through the story. For example, the way that things Sophie tells her hats actually come to be true is not just a light touch of humor. Along with the strange reappearance of the scarecrow and the yammering of the skull, they hint at Sophie’s magical talent for talking characteristics into objects. In her usual way, Jones twines the adventures of Sophie’s hats in with some important plot information about the disappearance of the Royal Wizard and Prince Justin.

Howl’s Moving Castle is actually a complex novel. It would be impossible to fully explain what happens in a brief paragraph. The reader, however, is rarely confused or at a loss, because Jones is so careful to discreetly feed the reader all the necessary information before they are aware that they need it. One example of this is the way everyone is always talking about how heartless Howl is. The two words practically go together. Calcifer takes particular care to drop hints, bragging about his own heart, and talking to Howl about shooting stars. And when they move Calcifer, the reader gets to see a perfect heart shaped lump at Calcifer’s base. So when Calcifer turns out to be a fallen star kept alive by Howl’s heart, the reader has no reason to be confused.

An attempt at plot summary: Sophie spends her days working in the family hat shop until she is turned into an old woman by the Witch of the Waste. She promptly runs off and becomes the cleaning lady of the wicked wizard Howl whose castle roams the hills around town. Howl has a fire demon who promises to break the curse on her if she can break the contract between himself and Howl. As Sophie is searching for clues she realizes that Howl, infamous for sucking the souls of young ladies, is courting one of her sisters. At the same time the king is pestering Howl to search for the missing royal wizard Suliman and Prince Justin--a task that Howl will stoop to anything to avoid. The very worst--in between being chased by a scarecrow, catching shooting stars, and cutting up Howl’s best suit, Sophie manages, in a backwards way, to fall in love with heartless Howl herself.

Characters: Sophie’s true character unfolds as the book proceeds, startling Sophie, as much as the reader. Self-sacrificing, sensible, big-sister Sophie holes up in the back of the hat shop with nobody to speak to but the hats she decorates. With no particular reason to ever to come out of her reclusive hole, she seems destined to become a shy and frightened spinster. Thankfully, Sophie is freed from the shop and her earlier perception of herself by the witch’s spell, and the true Sophie comes out. The big-sister bossiness suddenly applies itself to everyone, regardless of age or status. And there’s a fierce curiosity which Howl succinctly refers to as “nosiness.” Neither does the new Sophie allow herself to be relegated to the back room of anyone’s life anymore. Her newfound initiative has her steaming all over the country, with disastrous results. Sophie herself seems to have a bit of trouble keeping up with these newly revealed facets of her personality. In the beginning she differentiates between “Sophie” and “Sophie as an old woman.” The line blurs, though, as she exploits the freedom of being an old woman to the hilt. She has the same difficulty coming to terms with being in love with Howl. A careful reader will notice when her obsession changes from protecting females from Howl to keeping Howl away from females--the former out of righteous indignation, the latter out of jealousy. When Sophie’s strong mind has difficulty coming to terms with something, beware. The resulting storm is almost as bad as Howl’s temper tantrum, in its own way. Luckily, Sophie gets her way in the end.

Howl is an interesting character because he doesn’t actually develop much over the course of the novel, but he seems to develop, because the reader’s perception of him comes through Sophie’s eyes. However, her eyes see more than her mind admits to, so as soon as Sophie recognizes Howl as the kind young man she met outside the bakery, the reader knows--even as Sophie is relieved to have escaped his evil clutches--that Howl can’t be quite as bad as he’s made out to be. Sophie comes to this realization slowly, as she observes Howl’s dealings. He undercharges the poor, and doesn’t overcharge the rich enough. He took in Michael, and eased Sophie’s arthritis. Slowly she realizes that his selfish and shiftless habits are as much a cover for his softhearted caring as they are negative personality traits. (There is no getting around one fact--he is vain.) As for being heartless--well, that’s because the softie gave it away!

‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ is a children’s book, so adults may not treat it seriously, however it’s a five-star book on par with Harry Potter - and maybe even better.