The Handmaid's Tale

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LibraryThing recommendations

Member recommendations:

litterate recommends The Year of Compulsory Childbirth by Nigel Farringdon, "Women forced to have children to bolster a declining population."

litterate recommends The Year of Compulsory Childbirth by Nigel Farringdon, "Very similar themes."

goodiegoodie recommends Her Smoke Rose Up Forever by James Tiptree

norabelle414 recommends 1984 by George Orwell

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

The Handmaid's Tale

Original publication date

1985

Important places

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Republic of Gilead

The Wall

Rachel & Leah Centre (Red Centre)

People/Characters

Awards and honors

Aurora Award Shortlist (1986)

Booker Prize Shortlist (1986)

Arthur C. Clarke Award (1987)

Nebula Nominee (Novel, 1986)

Prometheus Award Shortlist (1987)

(show all 16 items)

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

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Conor Cruise O'Brien

Angela Carter

LibraryThing members' description

Book description

Book descriptions

Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0099740915, Paperback)

In this multi-award-winning, bestselling novel, Margaret Atwood has created a stunning Orwellian vision of the near future. This is the story of Offred, one of the unfortunate “Handmaids” under the new social order who have only one purpose: to breed. In Gilead, where women are prohibited from holding jobs, reading, and forming friendships, Offred’s persistent memories of life in the “time before” and her will to survive are acts of rebellion. Provocative, startling, prophetic, and with Margaret Atwood’s devastating irony, wit, and acute perceptive powers in full force, The Handmaid’s Tale is at once a mordant satire and a dire warning.

(retrieved from Amazon Mon, 25 Aug 2008 02:47:05 -0400)

(see all 5 descriptions)