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The Handmaid's Tale
  
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The Handmaid's Tale (Library Binding)

by Margaret Eleanor Atwood (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (248 customer reviews)

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2 new from CDN$ 42.61 1 used from CDN$ 51.62

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Product Details

Product Description

Amazon.ca Canadian Essential

Written in 1985, Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale imagines a near future quite different than the one George Orwell had predicted for the previous year, but her novel has joined 1984 as one of the classics of dystopian literature. Her vision is of a United States transformed into the Republic of Gilead, a fundamentalist state in which women, and their increasingly rare reproductive capacities, are strictly controlled. It's an imagined world memorable both for Atwood's vivid anger and her surprising tenderness. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.


Amazon.ca

Throughout her career, Margaret Atwood has played with different literary genres in her novels--historical fiction (Alias Grace), pulp fiction (The Blind Assassin), the comedy of manners (The Robber Bride)--but no foray into genre fiction has been as successful as her turn to speculative fiction in The Handmaid's Tale. Published in 1985, it echoes Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World, but a vibrant feminism drives Atwood's portrait of a futuristic dystopia. In the Republic of Gilead, we see a world devastated by toxic chemicals and nuclear fallout and dominated by a repressive Christian fundamentalism. The birthrate has plunged, and most women can no longer bear children. Offred is one of Gilead's Handmaids, who as official breeders are among the chosen few who can still become pregnant.

The Handmaid's Tale is an imaginatively audacious novel that is at once a page-turning psychological thriller, a moving love story, and a chilling warning about what might be waiting for us around the corner. What ultimately makes it stand out is Atwood's ability to balance a passionate political statement with finely wrought literary fiction. The Handmaid's Tale is a remarkable work by one of Canada's most inventive writers. --Jeffrey Canton --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Customer Reviews

248 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (248 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Chilling, thought-provoking, Sep 26 2004
This review is from: The Handmaid's Tale (Paperback)
THE HANDMAID'S TALE is a tale that needs to be read. This one by Atwood is not simply a work of feminism, as some try to portray it. It's a work also (I would say primarily) of secularism (or the artful plea for more of it). In a post 9-11 world, can anyone ever again say that religion taken to its logical extreme doesn't hurt anyone? Maybe fundamentalists think it hurts only women and that that's all right. Just as the nightly news proves them wrong, sadly night after night these days, Atwood will prove them wrong, too, only more poignantly.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Very convincing, Nov 17 2009
By S. El-Hilo "Adores Books" (Burnaby, BC CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Handmaid's Tale (Paperback)
I just finished reading the book, and what can I say, AMAZING! Great read. The writing style is superb, very convincing, detailed and touching. It is very moving. What I found disturbing is how realistic the book is. It just shows what could happen when religious extremists take over. It is not far fetched at all, in fact its quite like that already in Saudi Arabia.
Reading this book was like a journey, full of sorrow, but also hope. Great!
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5.0 out of 5 stars Mrs. Q: Book Addict : Visit my blog for newest reviews., Oct 29 2009
This review is from: The Handmaid's Tale (Paperback)
This book blew me away and I just wanted to keep reading. The world that Atwood creates doesn't feel that far off. The government decides that women cannot own any property and one day Offred has no money in her account and she is told that the laws have changed. She tries to escape with her husband and child but they get caught. She is made into a Handmaid and her life becomes to have children for others. Offred struggles with the present and the past. She doesn't know if her family is alive or dead, she feels it is more bearable to believe they are dead. They are told they are being saved from the "Freedom from" as apposed to the "Freedom for." Women are told they are freed from men.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, thought provoking, and well written
The Handmaids Tale is a dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood. This story takes place in the Republic of Gilead, the future version of the United States of America. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Kirstie

2.0 out of 5 stars Magaret Atwood -- please no more political books
Margaret Atwood writes yet another book with more weak and obvious messages. I have read Oryx and Crake, then it was about genetic engineering, corporate power, etc. Read more
Published on Jul 29 2005 by Shirley Carter

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the very few books that you will remember forever!
Just perfectly wonderful. If you are a fan of "1984" by George Orwell you will be pleased by this fantastic but so realistic story. Read more
Published on Dec 5 2004 by Julie

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
I am a great Margaret Atwood fan and I love this book
Published on Nov 11 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the usual suspects
If you're one for a novel that is truly off the beaten path, then stop--you've just found it. THE HANDMAID'S TALE is the most riveting and explosive thing I've read since Jackson... Read more
Published on Aug 5 2004

2.0 out of 5 stars Tale Worth Being Burned
While I was searching for a new book to read, I stumbled across Atwood's new novel, Oryx and Crate. I read the reviews and many people agreed that the Handmaiden's tale was much... Read more
Published on Dec 9 2003 by kokawaii

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes im 17 but i am NOT a mindless idiot!
In reply to our dear Derrek, i as many of my other class mates throughly enjoyed the novel, it is rare a book you have to study becomes something you would read yourself, this was... Read more
Published on Nov 27 2003 by beccy

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read!!!
It's like the "female" version of 1984. A futuristic society where you're free from being scared of crime, but really you have no freedom other than that. Read more
Published on Nov 5 2003 by Zammy187

3.0 out of 5 stars WOW TALK ABOUT DISTURBING!
Maybe it was the fact that im just a gcse student studying the book in english class, but i seriously found this book disturbing! Read more
Published on Oct 10 2003

1.0 out of 5 stars Tiresome
I am not a fan of dystopia genre so that may be one of the reasons I disliked this book. Atwood writes with a conscious attempt to place this book neatly into the genre. Read more
Published on Jun 23 2003

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