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The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
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The Handmaid's Tale (original 1985; edition 1998)

by Margaret Atwood (Author)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
42,495114747 (4.1)1 / 2194
This look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.
Member:mcoverton
Title:The Handmaid's Tale
Authors:Margaret Atwood (Author)
Info:Anchor (1998), Edition: 1st Anchor Books, 311 pages
Collections:Your library, Currently reading, Wishlist, To read, Read but unowned, Favorites
Rating:****
Tags:None

Work Information

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

  1. 828
    1984 by George Orwell (cflorente, norabelle414, Schwehnchen)
  2. 604
    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (ateolf)
  3. 483
    Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley (fannyprice)
  4. 423
    Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (readerbabe1984, rosylibrarian, ateolf, browner56)
    browner56: Two chilling, though extremely well written, reminders that liberty, freedom, and self-determination are not idle concepts.
  5. 264
    The Road by Cormac McCarthy (mrstreme)
  6. 211
    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Schwehnchen, mcenroeucsb)
  7. 181
    Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (smiteme)
  8. 269
    A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (wosret)
  9. 140
    Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (krazy4katz)
    krazy4katz: An upside down recommendation, as this is an "all-women" utopia rather than a dystopia, but a fun read.
  10. 2411
    The Giver by Lois Lowry (cflorente)
  11. 120
    The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper (lesvrolyk)
  12. 110
    When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (sparemethecensor)
    sparemethecensor: The Handmaid's Tale is the classic forerunner to dystopic fiction of sexist futures. When She Woke picks up the mantel with a more modern version of a misogynistic theocracy taking over government. Both show terrifying futures for the state of women in society.… (more)
  13. 111
    We by Yevgeny Zamyatin (themephi)
  14. 112
    The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (smiteme)
  15. 167
    V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (readerbabe1984)
  16. 124
    The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (wosret, Kaelkivial)
    Kaelkivial: Both stories of strong women who resist (in one form or another) the system that holds them down. Both books fairly fast paced and gripping; acts of violence and loss scattered throughout.
  17. 91
    The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (LamontCranston)
  18. 92
    Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (k8_not_kate)
  19. 92
    The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist (bookcrushblog)
  20. 70
    I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (wosret)

(see all 66 recommendations)

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» See also 2194 mentions

English (1,089)  Spanish (15)  French (7)  Dutch (5)  Catalan (5)  German (4)  Italian (3)  Swedish (3)  Finnish (3)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Danish (1)  Arabic (1)  Hebrew (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (1,139)
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Here's what I wrote in 2013 about this read: "Glad to have read this one; dystopian America where women lose all rights and are forced into narrowly-defined roles, with one class of women serving as child-bearers only." Quotations in the comments section are my exact kindle highlights. ( )
1 vote MGADMJK | May 20, 2024 |
Gemischte Gefühle über Der Report der Magd

Es ist unbestritten, dass Der Report der Magd von Margaret Atwood eine faszinierende Handlung hat und einen tiefen Einblick in eine düstere dystopische Welt bietet. Jedoch habe ich unterschiedliche Empfindungen nach dem Lesen des Buches, was zu einer Bewertung von drei Sternen führt.



Der Report der Magd ♦ Margaret Atwood

Meinung

Die dystopische Perspektive, die Atwood in dem Roman geschaffen hat, ist zweifellos einer der wichtigsten Aspekte. Die Welt von Der Report der Magd ist realistisch, düster und beklemmend. Denn die Autorin schafft es, eine Atmosphäre von Kontrolle und Unterdrückung zu schaffen, die mich, als Leserin, zum Nachdenken angeregt hat, besonders im Hinblick auf aktuelle Ereignisse der letzten Jahre, wenn wir einen Blick über den großen Teich werfen.

Trotzdem fand ich einige Handlungen der Hauptfigur Desfred schwierig zu verstehen. Es war schwierig, eine tiefere Verbindung zu ihr aufzubauen, weil ihre Handlungen manchmal unlogisch oder nicht ausreichend motiviert schienen. Dieser Mangel an Verständnis für die Beweggründe der Hauptfigur beeinträchtigte meine Gesamterfahrung mit dem Buch erheblich.

Der Schreibstil von Margaret Atwood ist ein weiterer Faktor, der meine Bewertung beeinflusst. Trotz der anspruchsvollen und literarischen Sprache fand ich den Schreibstil nicht immer flüssig genug. Viele Abschnitte waren überladen, was es schwierig machte, in die Geschichte einzutauchen. Ein flüssigerer Schreibstil hätte das Lesen für mich sicherlich angenehmer gemacht.

Fazit

Zusammenfassend ist Der Report der Magd von Margaret Atwood in jeder Hinsicht ein einzigartiges und bedeutendes Werk, das wichtige Themen anspricht. Obwohl die dystopische Welt und die düstere Atmosphäre beeindruckend sind, haben die unklaren Handlungen der Protagonistin und der nicht immer flüssige Schreibstil meine Gesamteinschätzung des Buches beeinträchtigt. Daher vergebe ich drei Sterne, die aber nicht als negativ einzustufen sind.


This review was first published at The Art of Reading. ( )
  RoXXieSiXX | May 20, 2024 |
Clearly I'm the last person on Earth to read this book - I haven't even seen the series! - but although I admired the writing and thought the plot to be a scarily plausible commentary on men ... I wasn't bowled over, I have to admit. In fact, for a relatively short novel, the first half kept sending me to sleep. And from what I already knew of the story, I was surprised that the worldbuilding was neither as futuristic or historical as I imagined, unless the 80s counts as history.

Offred the unreliable narrator and the fractured narrative were almost poetical, and even when I didn't understand what was happening, I was captivated by the words. The thought of women existing just to have children is a nightmare scenario for me - I would rather have been sent to the Colonies or strung up! - but this line really shocked me: 'After the books were transferred they were supposed to go to the shredder, but sometimes I took them home with me.' Imagine destroying the original after making a notoriously ephemeral digital copy!

I don't think I'll bother with the TV adaptation, but I am tempted to continue with Offred's story in The Testaments. ( )
  AdonisGuilfoyle | May 18, 2024 |
A instant dystopian classic. The Handmaid’s Tale is thought-provoking, terrifying, and keeps the reader asking What if? A scary tale on how women is perceived in a society where the "I" is decided by "others" since the first breathe and the dangers of control, stereotyping and role incredulity. ( )
  P.C.Menezes | May 15, 2024 |
Quite frankly, one of the most disturbing pieces of fiction I have ever read. I'd hazard to say that nearly every woman who want to know the value of her body outside of her own dreams and desires should read this book. ( )
  crowsandprose | May 15, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 1089 (next | show all)

» Add other authors (27 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Atwood, Margaretprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Balbusso, AnnaIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Balbusso, ElenaIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Boyd, FlorenceCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Danes, ClaireNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
David, JoannaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Marcellino, FredCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Martin, ValerieIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moss, ElisabethNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pennati, CamilloTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

And she said, Behold my maid Bihah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.
                              — Genesis 30:1–3
But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal . . .
                              — Jonathan Swift,
A Modest Proposal
In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones.
                              — Sufi proverb
Dedication
For Mary Webster and Perry Miller
First words
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
Quotations
As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day.
Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water.
The shell of the egg is smooth but also grained; small pebbles of calcium are defined by the sunlight, like craters on the moon. It’s a barren landscape, yet perfect; it’s the sort of desert the saints went into, so their minds would not be distracted by profusions. I think that this is what God must look like: an egg. The life of the moon may not be on the surface, but inside.
But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest. Maybe none of this is about control ... Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.
There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia, freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.
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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
The Reading Guide Edition is the substantial equivalent the main Handmaid's Tale work, with a few additional pages of questions for groups to consider at the back. Please therefore leave these works combined together. Thank you
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This look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.

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