The Handmaid’s Tale | The Handmaid’s Tale

At a glance:

Author: Margaret Atwood
First Published: 1985
Type of Work: Novel
Genres: Long fiction, Dystopian fiction, Near future and distant future fiction
Subjects: Dictators, Freedom, United States or Americans, Power, personal or social, Sexism, Sex or sexuality, Gender roles, Self, Slavery or slaves, Revolutions, Future, Twenty-first century, Prostitution or prostitutes, Religion, Feminism, Oppression, Women, Conservatism, Infertility, Childbirth, Totalitarianism, Women’s rights
Locales: Gilead

Among the most frequently banned books of the 1990’s, The Handmaid’s Tale won Canada’s most prestigious award for fiction, the Governor General’s Literary Award. The novel is narrated by a woman known as Offred (Of Fred), a “Handmaid” to a Commander and the Commander’s Wife in the fictional Republic of Gilead. As Offred describes events in her highly controlled life, she recalls times before religious fundamentalists assumed political control, a period when she was a wife, mother, and librarian.

The Handmaid’s Tale | The Handmaid’s Tale

At a glance:

The Work

Join eNotes