The Handmaid's Tale 1985
- brothels, Canadian authors, Canadian fantasy fiction, Canadian fiction (fictional works by one author)
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.
- Sexual violence
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Character
Grave, contemporary, earnest and bleak.
- gravecomic
- contemporarynostalgic
- earnestironic
- warmbleak
- unpretentiousprestige
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About the book
- Author
- Margaret Atwood
- First published
- 1985
- Pages
- 352
- Publisher
- Jonathan Cape, Bertrand Editora, Houghton Mifflin
- Editions
- 174
- Language
- cat, English, German, slo
- ISBN
- 9781984899668
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“We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.”
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian novelist, poet, literary critic, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published more than 50 books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays, including 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of nonfiction, nine collections of short fiction, eight children's books, two graphic novels, and a number of small press editions of both poetry and fiction. Her work has been published in over 40 countries, and a number of her works have been adapted for film and television. Her best-known work is the 1985 dystopian novel *The Handmaid's Tale,* and her novels also include *Cat's Eye,* shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the
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