The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

Dec 2010 · McClelland & Stewart

About this eBook

An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss.

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.

Ratings and reviews

Not gonna lie, it's a little dry and dull. The story is one to make you think, get angry, look around the world, and see what Ms. Atwood was pointing out. As hauntingly possible as it was in 1985, it has become more realistic with time.

For awhile now, I've had a taste for dystopias, and Margaret Atwood does it well. Her purpose of writing (reactionaries to feminism, anti-femenist females, et al.) is clear without totally consuming the writing, and her emotional growth and death brings color (other than red) to the story. Offred is a protagonist you can sympathize with, unlike Winston Smith or Bernard Marx.

I enjoyed this novel for its unique approach to a uncertain future where our weapons have rendered the population infertile. Women are coerced into becoming surrogates for married couples so they can have children. Some parts of the novel are in vivid detail, but if relationships between men and women make you uncomfortable they are short and can easily be skipped. Overall, the tale of Offred is refreshingly unique and well worth the time spent reading it.

About the author

Nominated for the first ever Man Booker International Prize representing the best writers in contemporary fiction, Margaret Atwood is the author of more than 35 internationally acclaimed works of fiction, poetry and critical essays. Her numerous awards include the Governor General’s Award for The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Giller Prize and Italian Premio Mondello for Alias Grace. The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye, Alias Grace, and Oryx and Crake were all shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, which she won with The Blind Assassin. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and has been awarded the Norwegian Order of Literary Merit and the French Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres among many others; she is a Foreign Honorary Member for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She lives in Toronto.