House of Many Ways was published by HarperCollins in 2008. The novel is the third and final book in the Moving Castle series, following a new protagonist: Charmain Baker, a girl whose entire life has been devoted to reading books and who has no idea how to cook, clean, do laundry, or manage any practical task.
Charmain is sent to housesit for Great Uncle William, a wizard who has gone away for magical medical treatment. His house, she discovers, is larger inside than outside and contains doors that open onto different locations depending on how you use them. She is joined by Peter — a young man sent by the wizard’s apprentice — and together they must manage the house’s magical peculiarities while also being drawn into a larger plot involving the kingdom’s mysteriously vanishing treasury.
Howl and Sophie appear in supporting roles, now married with a toddler (Morgan) whose uncontrolled magic creates chaos wherever he goes. Jones uses their presence to provide continuity with the earlier books while keeping the focus on Charmain’s development — her gradual acquisition of practical competence and the discovery that books, while wonderful, are not sufficient preparation for life.
The novel was one of Jones’s last books (she died in 2011), and it has the warmth and assurance of a writer who knows exactly what she’s doing. The house’s magical geography — doors that open onto meadows, mountains, royal archives, and stranger places — provides the structural inventiveness that characterizes Jones’s best work.
Collecting House of Many Ways
First edition (HarperCollins, New York, 2008): Hardcover, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine/fine: $30–$80
- Very good/very good: $10–$30