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The Handmaid's Tale Paperback – 1 April 1998

by Margaret Atwood (Author)

25,194 ratings

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (The New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss.

Look for The Testaments, the bestselling, award-winning the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale

In Margaret Atwood's dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead's commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive. At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of narrative suspense, The Handmaid's Tale is a modern classic.

Includes an introduction by Margaret Atwood

Print length

336 pages
Language

English
Publication date

1 April 1998
Grade level

9 and up
Reading age

14 - 18 years
ISBN-10

038549081X
ISBN-13

978-0385490818
Lexile measure

750L
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Product description

Review

A novel that brilliantly illuminates some of the darker interconnections between politics and sex . . . Just as the world of Orwell's 1984 gripped our imaginations, so will the world of Atwood's handmaid! --The Washington Post Book World

The Handmaid's Tale deserves the highest praise. --San Francisco Chronicle

Atwood takes many trends which exist today and stretches them to their logical and chilling conclusions . . . An excellent novel about the directions our lives are taking . . . Read it while it's still allowed. --Houston Chronicle

Splendid. --Newsweek

From the Back Cover

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.

Product details

Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 038549081X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0385490818
Reading age ‏ : ‎ 14 - 18 years

Best Sellers Rank: 3,352 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 32 in Science Fiction

Customer reviews:
25,194 ratings

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emmaclare1810

Masterclass in dystopia

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 August 2017

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This book is amazing. It has been my favourite novel for fifteen years since I read it for A Level. I'm now an English teacher and every year I buy more copies than I'd like to admit to give to students. It is, in my opinion, the perfect dystopian novel: fiction that's just close enough to reality to scare the living daylights out of you.

120 people found this helpful

Carolyn Holmes

Moving, awe inspiring and un-putdownable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 22 January 2017

Verified Purchase

Ive never read a book like this before. And I've read many hundreds in my life. This was on a blog titled: '25 books every woman needs to read in her life' and it came in at number one. I'm so glad I bought it because I couldn't put it down

If I had to use one word to describe this book it would be "terrifying". I simply loved it!

70 people found this helpful

MadhviMuses

I read recently and really amazed with it

Reviewed in India on 14 November 2017

Verified Purchase

‘It isn’t running away they are afraid of .We wouldn’t get far. It’s those other escapes, the ones you can open in yourself, given a cutting edge’

Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood was in my TBR list since long. Thanks to one of online book club,I read recently and really amazed with it.

Plot:

As it is well-known fact that it’s a story set in distant future in dystopian USA. Country’s President is killed and parliament has been dissolved. Army takes over charges of entire nation. It is not regular army but Republic of Gilead.Its totalitarian regime governed by men only.

Entire story is narrated by protagonist Offred through tape recordings.

Offred is Handmaid. She is thirty -three. Her only job is to breed. Offred is not her real name. In Gilead society, all the basic human rights and freedom from women is taken away. They become second citizens. They have been categorized into Wives and Daughters of Commanders,Handmaids,Marthas and Aunts. Their functions and clothes are fixed according to their category and strictly watched by Guardians. If they don’t follow their duties, they are either hanged on wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness.

Story begins when Offred is newly posted in a commander’s house. She lives with commander, his wife, two housemaids and driver of commander.

Offred continually remembers her past throughout the story. She has a husband, a five year old daughter, a mother and a best friend. What became of them, she does not know.

Handmaids are allowed to go for walk and grocery shopping once in a day in pair. Offred is paired with Offglen. At the begging both they pretend as real believers of Gilead but as time passes they realize they are haters. Offglen is belonged to underground network of rebels who help people to cross border and disappear.She eventually hangs herself.

As the story progress, commander asks Offred to spend some time with him during night in his cabin in his wife’s absence. They talk,play scrabble and he asks for goodnight kiss. On the other hand, as Offred is not yet become pregnant,so commander’s his wife asks Offred to conceive child through his driver, Nick. This one night stand turns into passionate affair with Nick. They are not in love but they make love every single night. But at the end, a black car of Guardians arrives at commander’s house to take her away. So why she has been taken away? Who has made call to Guardians? What become of Offred eventually??

My Musings:

As story is set in dystopia, it is obviously disturbing read. But I enjoyed it thoroughly. It was quite comfortable read for me unlike Disgrace by J.MCotezee which was not even dystopian novel.

Handmaid’s Tale is considered as modern classic. But unlike other dystopian classics, this novel is narration driven rather than plot.

Margaret Atwood had fascination towards dystopian set-up since her early days. She has read and great fan of Orwell’s 1984, Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Huxley’s Brave New World to name a few.

Offred seems real character. She hates her present and wantsto escape but does not have courage. As she has only one job of breeding and she is being taken care of by housemaids, she has plenty of time to spare. So she observes her surrounding and takes notes in mind. She has sharp observation skills. She remembers each and every minor detail of her daily routine and memories from past. She makes love with Nick without guilt as she feels something humanly in it in that in-human world. She even tells her real name to Nick.

There are other characters but all are narrated through Offred. So we may not get their real persona. They might have come out as with different personalities if story would have been narrated in third person.

The strongest and best part about the whole book is flow of lyrical narration. Lyrics are sad yet beautiful. Once in a while,we come across such rhythmic narration in fiction.It never loses its pace for a moment during entire story.

Author has used so many fabulous illustrations ,metaphors to describe the pain and heaviness of situation.

For example:

“The newspapers stories were like to dreams to us, bad dreams dreamt by others. How, awful, we would say ,and they were, but they were awful without being believable. They were too melodramatic; they had a dimension that was not the dimension of our lives. We were the people not in the papers. We lived in the blank pages at the edges of print. It gave us more freedom.” (Page 89)

The only part I did not like is its open ending.Author let readers to imagine the ultimate fate of Offred.It would have been great,if we could know Offred’s destiny.

After reading this book I felt so grateful that I live in a world where such things are only on papers!

So grab this book if you want to witness dystopian painting of pain painted by one of the greatest artists alive today.

82 people found this helpful

Jesus Is King

I was not disappointed. I love the writing style of Margaret Atwood ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 November 2017

Verified Purchase

Can't believe it's taken me so long to get round to reading this book. I was not disappointed. I love the writing style of Margaret Atwood and the detail that went into the creation of the book. I could hardly put it down until I finished it.

30 people found this helpful

Booksforall93

A book that should be read for generations to come

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2020

Verified Purchase

This is one of the books that I knew I had to read, and when I opened it I had no idea that it was originally published in 1985. What fascinates me about this is that nearly 40 years later it is still extremely relevant in how women are perceived. Especially with Trump in office.

It took some time for me to start getting into the book because it is a style of writing that I'm not used to. There were a lot of time frame jumps, and because it's set in such a strange period I couldn't quite wrap my head around it, and therefore I ended up putting it down and reading The Hate U Give. But I picked it up again pretty quickly and I got used to the writing style.

I'm so glad that I did because it was a really good story.
I found the relationship between Offred and the Commander to be interesting. I don't want to go into too much detail here because I don't want to spoil it for anyone that hasn't read it but let's just say, it's interesting and the Commander definitely has some warped ideas.

I would have loved if the book had a clearer ending, but then again I understand why there wasn't a clear ending and I thought that was extremely clever! (Again I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't yet read it).

I also really enjoyed how Offred developed and so to did her memories. It seems as though as she is growing more frustrated with what is happening, the more she looks back on what her life was like before with more scepticism.

7 people found this helpful

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