The Handmaid's Tale

The Handmaid's TaleA gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time. Margaret Atwood is "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times). Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures

A gripping vision of our society radically overturned by a theocratic revolution, The Handmaid's Tale has become one of the most powerful and most widely read novels of our time. Margaret Atwood is "the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction" (New York Times).

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, serving in the household of the enigmatic Commander and his bitter wife. She may go out once a day to markets whose signs are now pictures because women are not allowed to read. She must pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, for in a time of declining birthrates her value lies in her fertility, and failure means exile to the dangerously polluted Colonies. Offred can remember a time when she lived with her husband and daughter and had a job, before she lost even her own name. Now she navigates the intimate secrets of those who control her every move, risking her life in breaking the rules.

Like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid's Tale has endured not only as a literary landmark but as a warning of a possible future that is still chillingly relevant.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Everyman's Library
Published: 10/17/2006
ISBN: 9780307264602
Pages: 400
Weight: 1.08lbs
Size: 8.26h x 5.26w x 1.01d

Review Citations: New York Review of Books 11/02/2006 pg. 18

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 8109 / Handmaid's Tale
Reading Level: 5.4 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 14