------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“ HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE “ by Diana Wynne Jones
( 2nd Prize Winner - Andrea Chan )
A castle that moves around on its own, seven league boots, invisibility cloaks, fire demons, witches and magicians. What else could one ask for from a fantasy story? The book “Howl’s Moving Castle” is a fantastical tale full of all these exciting elements and more. Even though one might dismiss the book as yet another Harry Potter wannabe, the truth is that Diana Wynne Jones wrote this book way back in 1986, before the advent of the Boy Who Lived.
Every story revolves around a hero or a heroine. “Howl’s Moving Castle” is no different in this case. The story starts with Sophie Hatter, the oldest daughter of a milliner in Ingary. Sophie believes, as per Ingary’s custom, that as the oldest, she will definitely fail first and the worst of all, especially since her parents aren’t even poor woodcutters. After Sophie’s father dies, her well-meaning stepmother Fanny, sends Sophie’s two younger sisters to be apprentices of different trades.
Meanwhile, Sophie gets stuck in her father’s old shop where she seems to have developed a talent decorating hats. Even though the shop’s business is booming, Sophie still feels unhappy with her life. Upon learning the truth of Fanny’s intentions, Sophie becomes determined to seek her own fortune outside. As Sophie is packing, she is interrupted by a very grand-looking lady who ends up cursing Sophie to become an old lady and unable to reveal the cause of her misfortune.
Not wanting to face her family with her new look, Sophie sets off into the countryside to find a solution to her unsatisfying life. After some misadventures, it is nearing nightfall but she soon spots the infamous moving castle of the Wizard Howl. She manages to make her way inside and convinces Michael, the resident apprentice to let her stay the night.
Though Sophie knows of Howl’s reputation of eating young girls’ hearts, she is comforted by the thought that Howl would have no interest in old ladies like her. Later, Sophie is startled to discover a fire demon named Calcifer, who takes advantage of the situation and makes a deal with Sophie. In return for breaking his contract with Howl, he would change Sophie back into her original state. When Howl returns, she finds him a handsome but rather slippery person as he neither agrees nor disagrees to let Sophie stay on as the new cleaning lady.
Over the next few months, Sophie uncovers many strange things while enjoying her new life of disorderly but intense cleaning. The castle’s movement is powered by Calcifer and with the turn of a knob, the front door opens up to a different town, as the castle is amazingly located in 4 different parts of Ingary. When Howl isn’t busy courting various girls, he works as a magician under various names in the different towns and Sophie somehow develops a reputation as a sort of witch herself. She slowly becomes friends with Michael and Calcifer but Howl seems to think of her as a meddling nag who always needs to be busy.
The odd foursome’s lives begin to change once Howl is requested by the King to become the new Royal Wizard. Howl is upset by this as his predecessor was believed to have been killed by the Witch of the Waste in his search for the King’s brother, Prince Justin. Sophie is scornful and disgusted with Howl’s cowardly actions. Unable to explain why, Sophie becomes even more bad-tempered when she learns that it is because the Witch is trying to curse Howl for leaving her. Sophie’s well-meaning but disastrous actions set the Witch’s plans into action and the curse catches up with Howl. Thus begins a series of showdowns between the two. In the final battle, Sophie discovers that she is truly a witch who is able to talk things into life and together with Howl, manages to save the day. She frees Calcifer from his contract and Prince Justin is found and released from the Witch’s control. Sophie and Howl finally admit their love for each other and in the fashion of fairy tales, everyone lived happily ever after.
The first thing that attracted me to this book was the title. It sounds so exciting and different from the other fantasy stories I’ve read before. From the title, you’d think that the story revolves around Howl but the main character is actually Sophie. It’s very refreshing to find that the heroine is stronger than the hero and ends up saving everyone. Sophie is also unlike your average heroine, since for most of the story, she is a wrinkled old crone who bosses others around in her attempt to improve things. This makes her more realistic and likeable than those perfect and beautiful princesses of old. For once, younger readers will have a real female to look up to.
I think readers like us would also appreciate the various aspects of Howl’s character. He seems to have a love-hate relationship with Sophie but the sparks between them are obvious. His methods of courting Sophie are subtle and incredibly different from when he’s courting other girls. Though Sophie usually thinks of him as
a lazy ‘slitherer-outer’, most people do look up to him. Howl is usually melodramatic and expresses his unhappiness with green slime, but he also has a compassionate side with the weak and the poor. Most of the time, Howl does seem cowardly but his unorthodox ‘non-plans’ tend to work out.
It’s unique that elements of classical fairy tales are fused with unlikely ideas, such as the moving castle, cowardly heroes and ancient heroines. The moving castle is such an extraordinary element that it almost seems like a character itself. If being able to move around on the power of a fire demon isn’t enough, it’s also located in four different places! This feature is really appealing as I’m sure everyone has wished that they could be in two places at one time, at least once in their life. Everyone, especially busy students and lecturers like us would definitely be happy to have this feature installed at home as it’d save us time traveling to and fro.
“Howl’s Moving Castle” is such a hit that it was an honour book for the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. Even those who don’t really like reading can enjoy it as acclaimed animation company Studio Ghibli adapted the story into an animated movie of the same title. The movie was nominated as Best Animated Feature Film for last year’s Oscars. This book definitely would appeal to all types of readers, as it has a bit of everything for everyone. There are so many things about this book that makes it stand out and any reader would be hooked by the characters and storyline. It would be great if Swinburne’s library had a copy so I could recommend more people to read the book. I’m sure they’ll love it as much as I do, for we’re never too old to read good fantasy stories.
