The Handmaid's Tale

Book Description

Critics

• The Handmaid's Tale, By Margaret Atwood

  Margaret Atwood's feminist dystopia has now reached the status of a classic, and may well prove to be the book she is remembered for. It's hard to believe it is 25 years since it was first published, but its freshness, its anger and its disciplined, ... (read full critics)

  independent published on Sun, 17 Oct 2010

• The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

  In the near-future USA that they call Gilead, society has changed. For the worse, of course. The population is dying out, and people who are capable of breeding the next generation are given a cherished status of Handmaid - gifted to any male of enou ... (read full critics)

  thebookbag published on Sun, 3 Oct 2010

14 Reviews

• 1 person find this helpful

  

  Must. Read.
  Why all (religious) fanaticism is so bad for the world!

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  Sengaia said on Apr 27, 2009 | Add your feedback

• 

  A good book for all tastes

  This was enlightening, moving, disturbing and wonderful. I enjoyed reading it. I think it has something for everyone.

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  TARU837 said on May 4, 2012 | Add your feedback

• 

  mixed feelings

  Mixed feelings. I really enjoyed the way it is written and the way in which Atwood is able to induce suspense even when nothing is happening. it is, in fact, a book about waiting, about stillness. but still, the author is able to create movement simply through feelings. Maybe I have mixed feelings b ... (continue)

  Mixed feelings. I really enjoyed the way it is written and the way in which Atwood is able to induce suspense even when nothing is happening. it is, in fact, a book about waiting, about stillness. but still, the author is able to create movement simply through feelings. Maybe I have mixed feelings because the topic is extremely involving for a woman, not easy to digest, and the genre is not my favorite. However, the ending is really clever, and I loved how it reveals some details that invert what you have been thinking of the plot so far. for example, I thought that women and men were both in a bad and subdued condition till the very end. The final chapter changed everything, still
  without giving us all the details about the theocracy depicted, leaving us free to think about the world we are living in an drawing our own consequences and making the right comparisons.

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  Chhavi said on Jul 12, 2011 | Add your feedback

• *** This comment contains spoilers! ***

  

  Wonderful, minimalistic, visionary

  My favourite quote from the book that shows how claustrophobic one's thoughts grow out of solitude and captivity:"Minimalist life: pleasure is an egg". See: http://www.shmoop.com/handmaids-tale/symbolism-imagery.html

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  Fabioruxo said on Feb 23, 2011 | Add your feedback

• 

  A powerful, gripping story reveals the author's vast knowledge of the dynamics of totalitarian regimes. Also, the historical notes at the end make the novel even more terrifyingly realistic.

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  Caterina :) said on Jan 4, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

• 

  Distressing…

  This story is extraordinary...chilling, but extraordinary. As with all of her books, Atwood as a canny ability to insert the very basics of human nature into the most outrageous and horrifying of environments, which is essentially what makes this book believable. I challenge any reader to keep the c ... (continue)

  This story is extraordinary...chilling, but extraordinary. As with all of her books, Atwood as a canny ability to insert the very basics of human nature into the most outrageous and horrifying of environments, which is essentially what makes this book believable. I challenge any reader to keep the chills at bay when they come to the part of the story where it is explained how the United States is overtaken by a group of religious fanatics and the world as we know it is mutated to a dystopian hell.

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  ReadingQueen 12/17 said on Aug 10, 2010 | Add your feedback

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Paperback 320 Pages
• Edition: 1
• ISBN-10: 038549081X
• ISBN-13: 9780385490818
• Publisher: Anchor
• Pub date: Mar 16, 1998
• Dimensions: 1290 mm x 839 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Mass Market Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD, Audio Cassette, Library Binding, School & Library Binding, Unbound, Others and eBook
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, 简体书, Deutsche Bücher, Libri Italiani

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• The Collective (146)
• NY Times Notable Book Club (481)
• Flight 815 Book Club (18)
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