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

by Margaret Atwood

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Member:	schlimmbesserung
Title:	The Handmaid's Tale
Authors:	Margaret Atwood
Info:	Anchor (1998), Edition: 1st Anchor Books, Paperback, 320 pages
Collections:	Your library
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Tags:	fiction

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The Handmaidā€™s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)

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▾Member reviews

English (397) Spanish (4) French (3) Catalan (2) Finnish (2) German (1) Norwegian (1) Dutch (1) Swedish (1) All languages (412)

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i had to read this for my english A Levels. i don't know i honestly didnt enjoy it. i couldnt get into it at all. to be honest they made us watch the film first, i don't know but i found it absoloutely boring. i guess this book is probs a hate or love book. it's pretty much about a world where women of a lower status are 'forced' into being 'baby making machines' as they are 'fruitful'. it covers the journey of Offred who falls in love with Nick (Guard dude) and we see the 'rituals' and how this really odd thing works

its too crazy. im sorry but i really did not like it at all :| (

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Davi93 | Jun 6, 2013 |

Interesting speculative fiction about what the world would be like if only a few women were fertile and the religious right stepped in to take over. (

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jmoncton | Jun 3, 2013 |

Our first ever Margaret Atwood novel had our heads spinning in all directions ā€¦ from uncomfortable and creepy to clever and interesting with a certain respectful awe in what the author has been able to create.
No one was exactly comfortable with this bookā€™s theme, but then, we were never really meant to be, were we? The fact that every shocking event Atwood has included has happened somewhere in the world at some time, demands a certain amount of reverent appreciation. Her subject matter is deeply thought out and portrayed in a highly believable environment where human frailty is a constant escort.
Regardless of our unease, and the fact that speculative fiction is not necessarily a favoured genre, it was noted that the writing was of a high quality with an extremely prophetic concept, considering its time of publishing, the ā€80s.
Most of us found it challenging in many ways ā€¦ as women (with a feminist slant), as readers and as human beings. The facts of the story are purposely left open to interpretation, which went a long way towards creating a most stimulating discussion and it was very interesting to hear everyoneā€™s take on a variety of topics. Politics, religion, history and last but not least, what makes a brilliant novel. If you like to challenge yourself and are not adverse to speculation, give this one a go. Like us, youā€™ll be glad you did. (

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DaptoLibrary | May 30, 2013 |

One of my favorite Utopian books. Haunting. And the scariest part is that it could happen. (

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Mortybanks | May 28, 2013 |

Tiptree shortlist retrospective. (

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SChant | May 26, 2013 |

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▾Published reviews

3 reviews

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thingScore 67

As a cautionary tale, Atwood's novel lacks the direct, chilling plausibility of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World. It warns against too much: heedless sex, excessive morality, chemical and nuclear pollution. All of these may be worthwhile targets, but such a future seems more complicated than dramatic. But Offred's narrative is fascinating in a way that transcends tense and time: the record of an observant soul struggling against a harsh, mysterious world.

added by Shortride | editTime, Paul Gray (Feb 10, 1986)

How sad for postfeminists that one does not feel for Offred-June half as much as one did for Winston Smith, no hero either but at any rate imaginable. It seems harsh to say again of a poet's novel - so hard to put down, in part so striking - that it lacks imagination, but that, I fear, is the problem.

added by Shortride | editThe New York Times Book Review, Mary McCarthy (Feb 9, 1986)

It's a bleak world that Margaret Atwood opens up for us in her new novel, ''The Handmaid's Tale'' - how bleak and even terrifying we will not fully realize until the story's final pages. But the sensibility through which we view this world is infinitely rich and abundant. And that's why Miss Atwood has succeeded with her anti-Utopian novel where most practitioners of this Orwellian genre have tended to fail.

added by Shortride | editThe New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (Jan 27, 1986)

▾Other authors

» Add other authors (32 possible)

Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Margaret Atwood	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Alfsen, Merete	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Marcellino, Fred	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Sibthorp, Fletcher	Cover artist	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Work-to-work relationships

Is contained in

Surfacing / Life Before Man / The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Has as a study

Margaret Atwood : the Handmaid's Tale by Helen Greven

Has as a student's study guide

The "Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood (York Notes Advanced) by Neil McEwan

CliffsNotes on Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale by Mary Ellen Snodgrass

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (Sparknotes) by Ross Douthat

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▾Common Knowledge

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Series (with order)

Canonical title

The Handmaidā€™s Tale

Original title

The Handmaid's Tale

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

Important places

Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Republic of Gilead

The Wall

Rachel & Leah Centre (Red Centre)

The Colonies

(show all 7 items)

Important events

Revolution to overthrow the US Government

President's Day Massacre

Related movies

The Handmaid's Tale (1990 ∙ IMDb)

Awards and honors

Aurora Award Shortlist (1986)

Booker Prize Shortlist (1986)

Arthur C. Clarke Award (1987)

Nebula Nominee (Novel, 1986)

Prometheus Award Shortlist (Novel, 1987)

(show all 30 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

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 Iā€™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 withold 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.

(show all 6 items)

Last words

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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

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

O'Brien, Conor Cruise

Carter, Angela

Publisher series

Everyman's Library New Series (301)

Vintage 21

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (6)

Dystopia

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Lech-Lecha

List of religious ideas in science fiction

The Handmaid's Tale

Vayetze

▾LibraryThing members' description

Book description

From the back of the book: Offred is a handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the commander and his wife once a day to walk to food market whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offredd and the other handmaids are valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offredd can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke, when she played with and protected her daughter, when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone nowā€¦..

Haiku summary

▾Book descriptions

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 038549081X, Paperback)

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable.

Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 03 Jan 2013 11:39:28 -0500)

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▾Library descriptions

"This visionary novel. in which God and Government are joined, and America is run as a Puritanical Theoracy, can be read as a companion volume to Orwell's 1984-its verso, in fact. It gives you the same degree of chill, even as it suggests the varieties of tyrannical experience; it evokes the same kind of horror even as its mordant wit makes you smile." E.L.Doctorow.… (more)

(summary from another edition)

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