The Handmaid's Tale

Description

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England, in a strongly patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state, known as the Republic of Gilead, which has overthrown the United States government. The central character and narrator is a woman named Offred, one of the group known as "handmaids", who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the "commanders" — the ruling class of men in Gilead. The novel explores themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society, loss of female agency and individuality, and the various means by which they resist and attempt to gain individuality and independence. The Handmaid's Tale won the 1985 Governor General's Award and the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987; it was also nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, the 1986 Booker Prize, and the 1987 Prometheus Award. ---------- Also contained in: [Novels](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24301311W)

Excerpt

We slept in what had become the gymnasium.

Description

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the homeof the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back Once a month and piay that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are, valued only if their ovaries are viable. Offred can remember the years before, when she lived and made love with her husband, Luke; wheh 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.

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Handmaid's TalePaperbackAnchor Books2017-01-01
• The Handmaid's TaleHardcoverHoughton Mifflin Company1986-01-01
• The Handmaid's TaleeBookHoughton Mifflin Harcourt1986-01-01
• A história da AiaMarco Zero1987-01-01
• El cuento de la criadaSudamericana1987-01-01
• Tjenerindens fortællingLindhardt og Ringhof1990-01-01