Howl's Moving Castle is a fantasy novel by Welsh author Diana Wynne Jones, first published in 1986 by Greenwillow Books of New York.

When the powerful Witch of the Waste considers her a threat and turns her into an old crone, Sophie leaves the shop and finds work as a cleaning lady for the notorious wizard Howl.

Part of the contract, however, stipulates that neither Howl nor Calcifer can disclose the main clause, leaving Sophie to figure it out on her own.

Sophie learns that Howl, a rather self-absorbed and fickle but ultimately good-natured person, spreads malicious rumours about himself to avoid work and responsibility.

The door to his castle is actually a portal that opens onto four places: Market Chipping, the seaside city of Porthaven, the royal capital of Kingsbury, and Howl's boyhood home in modern day Wales where he was named Howell Jenkins.

Initially these locations are: the moving castle in the hills above Market Chipping (green); in Porthaven (blue); in Kingsbury (red); and in Wales (black).

However, after Howl is forced into hiding he changes the door's destinations to: in Market Chipping (yellow); in Vale End (orange); a garden in the waste (purple); and in Wales (black).

While her siblings' lives become adventurous and exciting, she finds herself resigned to run her father's old hat shop, as it is her "fate" as the oldest sister.

Sophie leaves the shop and becomes a cleaning lady in Howl's castle, hoping that he might be able to lift the curse placed on her by the Witch.

Though Sophie is initially reserved and lacking confidence, she demonstrates herself to be a strong-minded individual after she is transformed into an old woman, becoming less afraid of what others think of her.

Dutiful, kind, and considerate, Sophie also has a tendency to be impulsive in her actions and often feels guilty when she does something wrong, though her attempts to rectify matters are usually disastrous.

He comes from Wales, a country unknown to most in the book, where his family remains unaware of his activities in Sophie's world or of its existence; his sister is annoyed by his disappearances, but he often visits them when troubled.

Despite his reputation, Howl is in reality an endearing, charming man who is intelligent, considerate, if somewhat self-appreciative, dishonest, and careless at times.

Despite his cowardice, he is an incredibly powerful wizard, capable of matching the Witch of the Waste and is only not known as such because he wants to avoid the work that comes with the respect.

He is also the first one to recognise Sophie's incredible ability to talk life into the world around her, which is the reason he allowed her into the castle in the first place and was so eager to make a bargain with her – if anyone but she were to break the contract he had with Howl, then Calcifer would die.

Fortunately, she is able to talk life into him, and he survives losing Howl's heart, even deciding to continue living with them after he is freed.

She was banished by the late King to The Waste fifty years before the story starts for causing havoc in the country.

[7] New Mythology is largely defined by the emergence of a new heroic archetype that transcends old cultural contexts and confronts them with modern ideals.

[8] Proponents of classifying Howl's Moving Castle as New Mythology present Sophie Hatter as one such heroine who follows this archetype.

While Howl's Moving Castle builds on its predecessor myths such as Cupid and Psyche, Cinderella, Bluebeard, and Beauty and the Beast, it often subverts many of the tropes within them.

Traditionally, the binary typology of the characters in fairy tales is strictly based on representations of good and evil.

This is exemplified in Jones reversing the roles of 'Beauty' and 'Beast' within the novel by depicting Howl as young and handsome, while having Sophie be cursed and transformed into an old crone.

Representations of the witch or crone in western European mythology have been stereotypically negative as they are often depicted as ugly and malevolent.

In having Sophie take on the role of an old crone, she is freed from several traditional myth archetypes such as maiden, wife, or mother.

Howl makes a reference to Donne again in Chapter 11, when Miss Angorian reads from his poem Song: "Go and catch a falling star".

In Chapter 12 there is a reference to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland when Howl tells Sophie "We can't all be Mad Hatters."

The film was critically acclaimed, broke box office records in Japan, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

It starred Julia McKenzie and Dakota Blue Richards as the old and young Sophies respectively, Iwan Rheon as Howl, Angus Imrie as the King, and Dan Starkey as Calcifer.

[13][14] In 1986 Howl's Moving Castle was one of two runners-up for the annual Boston Globe-Horn Book Award in Fiction, behind In Summer Light by Zibby Oneal.

Allusion to the mythical bird phoenix, which is reborn from its ashes, suggests the winning book's rise from obscurity.