Howl’s Moving Castle

The land of Ingary is a place where invisibility cloaks and seven-league boots exist. There, it’s also considered bad luck to be the oldest child of three: the first child will fail, and fail spectacularly. Sophie Hatter isn’t just the eldest of three; her parents are also well-off (poor eldest kids have a better chance of success) and own a hat shop in Market Chipping. Sophie’s mother dies when Sophie is two and her younger sister Lettie is one. Their father marries a shop assistant named Fanny, who soon has the third daughter, Martha. Fanny, rather than shunning Sophie and Lettie, treats all the girls kindly. But still, Sophie soon realizes she has no chance of “an interesting future.”

Sophie, however, isn’t unhappy, as she enjoys being in charge of raising her sisters and breaking up their fights (Lettie always insists that, despite being the second-born, she’ll marry a prince). Sophie regularly has to mend the rips in her sisters’ clothes after these fights, and she’s very skilled with needle and thread. About the time Sophie makes Lettie a gorgeous rose outfit for May Day, people start talking about the Witch of the Waste for the first time in decades. She apparently threatened the King’s daughter, so the King sent Wizard Suliman, his personal magician, to go to the Waste to deal with the Witch—and  Suliman died.

Months later, a tall, black, smoking castle appears on the hills above Market Chipping. People are terrified that the Witch will start terrorizing them like she used to, especially when they realize that the castle constantly moves. Soon, people discover that the castle belongs to Wizard Howl—which is still bad. Wizard Howl entertains himself by sucking the souls out of young girls or eating their hearts. All the girls in Market Chipping are warned to never go out alone. Sophie, Lettie, and Martha wonder often what Wizard Howl does with girls’ hearts or souls—until the day their father dies suddenly. It turns out that his hat shop is deeply in debt, as he prioritized paying his daughters’ tuition.

After the funeral, Fanny sits down with Sophie, Lettie, and Martha. She explains that the only way to stay afloat is to get each girl an apprenticeship. Lettie, she says, will go work at the pastry cook Cesari’s in Market Square. Lettie clearly isn’t pleased, but she doesn’t throw a fuss. Next, Fanny turns to Martha. Fanny says that Martha is going to be apprenticed to Mrs. Annabel Fairfax, an old friend who’s a successful witch and who can help Martha be just as successful. Sophie thinks Fanny’s choices seem very sensible: Lettie can marry and live a mediocre life, while Martha can flourish. Sophie isn’t surprised when Fanny then says that Sophie will inherit the hat shop, so she’ll be Fanny’s apprentice.

Sophie helps Martha pack the next morning. Lettie refuses help and seems happy to leave the hat shop for the bakery. Over the next week, the girls send notes to Sophie, saying that they’re both happy. Sophie doesn’t hear much from her sisters for months after this, as she begins her own apprenticeship. Having grown up in the hat shop, Sophie already knows the trade, the employees, the suppliers, and the customers. All she really has to learn is how to sell hats. But Fanny doesn’t let Sophie sell much, as she makes Sophie trim hats instead. Sophie is good at trimming hats and she likes it, but it’s dull work and she’s isolated in a little alcove. The one bright spot is that Sophie gets to listen to customers gossip about Wizard Howl, the Witch of the Waste, and the unattractive local girl Jane Farrier.

After a month, Sophie hears gossip about Lettie: Lettie is drawing gentleman customers to Cesari’s, where they buy lots of cakes and ask to marry her. To the bonnet she’s working on, Sophie says Lettie sounds very sensible for telling the boys she’s not old enough to marry. As the weeks pass, Sophie talks more often to the hats. Eventually, Sophie finishes each hat by putting it on a stand and telling it what kind of a lady should wear it. For instance, Sophie tells one plain pleated bonnet that it has a pure heart and will attract someone powerful to fall in love with its wearer. (She feels sorry for the fussy bonnet.) Jane Farrier buys the bonnet, to Sophie’s surprise.

Business is picking up, and Fanny almost regrets sending Martha and Lettie away. Sophie spends her nights trimming hats in the house just to keep up. There’s a sudden demand for bonnets like the one Jane Farrier bought when Jane runs off with the Count of Catterack. Sophie stops talking to the hats and starts trying them on—a mistake, as none of them suit her. She wants a more interesting life, but Sophie believes she’s far too busy to change anything, or even to go visit Lettie. Her inability to do anything begins to disturb her, so she swears to go visit Lettie when the hat shop is closed on May Day.

Gossip begins to circulate that the King fought with his brother, Prince Justin, and that Justin is in exile. Justin even came through Market Chipping in disguise, and the Count of Catterack was supposed to be looking for Justin when he ran off with Jane Farrier. This gossip makes Sophie even sadder—interesting things happen, just not to her. So she vows to go out when May Day rolls around. Before she leaves, Sophie trims a few more hats, reasoning that Lettie is working today so there’s no hurry. But when Sophie finally goes out, she’s in shock. The crowds are loud and overwhelming, and Sophie feels like working on hats for months has turned her into an old lady. Especially when Wizard Howl’s castle appears near the town and shoots flames out of its turrets, she’s terrified.

As Sophie runs, she tells herself she doesn’t actually want life to be interesting—this is what happens to the eldest of three. In Market Square, a man in his 20s, fantastically dressed in a blue and silver suit with scalloped, trailing sleeves, offers to buy Sophie a drink. Sophie shrinks away, declines his offer, and then runs off. Finally, she reaches Cesari’s, where the crowds are just as bad inside as they are outside. Lettie is behind the counter bagging cakes while a gaggle of admirers crowds the counter. When she catches sight of Sophie, she screams for Sophie to come behind the counter to a room lined in racks of cakes. Lettie pulls out stools, hands Sophie a cream cake, and then says she’s not Lettie. She’s Martha.