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The Handmaid's Tale

Average rating: 4/5

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The Handmaid's Tale

by Margaret Atwood

Doubleday Canada | August 1, 1986 | Mass Market Paperbound

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States of America. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets, where pictures have replaced words because women are forbidden to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries a viable. Offred can remember a time 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...
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Reviews

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    Rating: 4/5

    Powerful and provocative dystopian fiction

    Matthew McCarthy

    2 years ago

    The Handmaid's Tale is the third of Atwood's novels that I've picked up within the past year and a half, and I can see why this novel probably picks up the most recognition amongst her other works. While I can't comment on the Blind Assassin -- a novel still sitting on my shelf, waiting to be read -- both Alias Grace and The Edible Woman were novels that I thoroughly enjoyed. While The Edible Woman gives us a quirky black comedy, Alias Grace gives us a thought-provoking historical narrative. Conversely, The Handmaid's Tale deals with the fragmented memories of Offred -- a "farmed" woman (a Handmaid) only valued for her viable ovaries in a haunting patriarchal totalitarian state.

    While I won't give away too much of what the novel is about, it is told in a way that makes you want to read as voraciously as possible to find out what actually ends up happening. I've heard people say Atwood at times is predictable, but nothing in this novel is easy to guess. It may deal with the same well-trodden themes found in Atwood novels, but really I didn't expect anything completely new when reading the jacket.

    The Handmaid's Tale may not be a totally "new" idea; in our present day the landscape of fiction is almost overwhelmed with the dystopian, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale easily ranks in the upper echelon of what is available.

    This reviewer also recommends:
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    Rating: 5/5

    Not What I Expected...

    Alea

    2 years ago

    We had been given this book to read in Grade 11 and I blew it off as many classmates did, but never returned the book to the teacher. After I graduated High School, I looked on my shelf and still had it.

    Man, I should have read it in Grade 11. It's such a beautiful book. I found it hard to get into in the beginning, but having nothing else to read that day, I forced myself to continue and found myself captivated in a truley amazing story.

    A must read, not only because it's Atwood, but because it's a story of a few lives you'll always remember.

    Comments on this review:
    Diana Reid

    Please, anyone who still has books from high school: bring them back. As a high school teacher, my book budget has been slashed yearly until just getting replacements for books "lost" by students is too expensive. There are 4 great novels I can't teach to my students, because we have fewer than 20 copies left. Better still, find a sale on a novel you love:one of those 1 or $2 sales, and donate 30-60 dollars to your local school in the form of a class set of novels to soothe the guilt of overdue books. As I write this, I am building my own class sets of novels that I love, simply because we haven't the funds to take a chance on new literature. Neil Gaiman's Mirrormask, Edmund Rostand's Cyrano , etc. are all being bought out of pocket.

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    Rating: 4/5

    Another please

    Kimberli

    3 years ago

    This was my first Atwood book, and now I can't wait to read another. Out of all the books that I've read in the past about the future, I would have to say this one gave me the most chills. great plot, and beautiful imagery.

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    Not Impressed

    Rating: 3/5

    Bunch of babbel

    Not Impressed

    11 years ago

    I just finished reading the book and although it was intresting I wouldn't read it again. I didn't find it disturbing or realistc and the ending was far from good. The book was just babbel with no real meaning.

    Comments on this review:
    Susie Barbosa

    I agree. I read it, and found the middle was a little long and meaningless. It was a decent read, but I wouldn't read it again

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Details

From Our Editors

Enter a surrealistic future world where women and men are neatly placed into ready-made roles as nurturer, provider or childbearer. This is the story of one woman, chosen as a childbearer, or handmaiden, for a well-to-do family. Slowly she remembers her past and her own daughter, taken from her when she tried to escape the totalitarian state she now obeys. And as the unnatural boundaries between her and her employers erode, we catch a glimpse of true human nature struggling to escape the confines of this tyrannical society. Margaret Atwood mystifies, shocks and ultimately inspires readers with an unsavoury vision of the future for women in The Handmaid's Tale.

From the Publisher

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States of America. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets, where pictures have replaced words because women are forbidden to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for Offred and the other Handmaids are valued only if their ovaries a viable. Offred can remember a time 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...

About the Author

MARGARET ATWOOD is the author of more than twenty-five books, including fiction, poetry, and essays. Her most recent works include the bestselling novels Alias Grace and The Robber Bride and the collections Wilderness Tips and Good Bones and Simple Murders. She lives in Toronto.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Mass Market Paperbound

304 Pages, 0 x 0 x 0 IN

August 1, 1986

Doubleday Canada


0770422632
9780770422639

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From the Critics

"The most poetically satisfying and intense of all Atwood''s novels."-Maclean''s

"The Handmaid''s Tale is in the honorable tradition of Brave New World and other warnings of dystopia. It''s imaginative even audacious, and conveys a chilling sense of fear and menace."-The Globe and Mail

"The Handmaid''s Tale brings out the very best in Atwood--moral vision, biting humor, and a poet''s imagination."-Chatelaine

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