HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.
Loading...

The Handmaid's Tale (1985)

by Margaret Atwood

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: The Handmaid's Tale (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
40,817111645 (4.1)1 / 2164
This look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.
all members
▾Members
▾Tags
▾LibraryThing Recommendations
▾Member recommendations
  1. 808
    1984 by George Orwell (cflorente, norabelle414, Schwehnchen)
  2. 604
    Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (ateolf)
  3. 473
    Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley (fannyprice)
  4. 423
    Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (readerbabe1984, rosylibrarian, ateolf, browner56)
    browner56: Two chilling, though extremely well written, reminders that liberty, freedom, and self-determination are not idle concepts.
  5. 274
    The Road by Cormac McCarthy (mrstreme)
  6. 201
    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Schwehnchen, mcenroeucsb)
  7. 279
    A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (wosret)
  8. 181
    Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (smiteme)
  9. 2510
    The Giver by Lois Lowry (cflorente)
  10. 140
    Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (krazy4katz)
    krazy4katz: An upside down recommendation, as this is an "all-women" utopia rather than a dystopia, but a fun read.
  11. 110
    When She Woke by Hillary Jordan (sparemethecensor)
    sparemethecensor: The Handmaid's Tale is the classic forerunner to dystopic fiction of sexist futures. When She Woke picks up the mantel with a more modern version of a misogynistic theocracy taking over government. Both show terrifying futures for the state of women in society.… (more)
  12. 110
    The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper (lesvrolyk)
  13. 177
    V for Vendetta by Alan Moore (readerbabe1984)
  14. 111
    We: A Novel by Yevgeny Zamyatin (themephi)
  15. 112
    The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood (smiteme)
  16. 124
    The Red Tent by Anita Diamant (wosret, Kaelkivial)
    Kaelkivial: Both stories of strong women who resist (in one form or another) the system that holds them down. Both books fairly fast paced and gripping; acts of violence and loss scattered throughout.
  17. 91
    The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin (LamontCranston)
  18. 92
    Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood (k8_not_kate)
  19. 92
    The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist (bookcrushblog)
  20. 70
    I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman (wosret)

(see all 66 recommendations)

▾Lists
» 177 more
1980s (1)
AP Lit (45)
Read (8)
▾Will you like it?
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

▾Conversations (About links)

» See also 2164 mentions

▾Member reviews
English (1,058)  Spanish (15)  French (7)  Dutch (5)  Catalan (5)  German (4)  Italian (3)  Swedish (3)  Finnish (3)  Portuguese (Brazil) (1)  Danish (1)  Arabic (1)  Hebrew (1)  Norwegian (1)  All languages (1,108)
date ▼ | votes
Showing 1-5 of 1058 (next | show all)
“The Handmaid’s Tale,” by Margaret Atwood; Published in 1985
Banned by the Nampa School District in Idaho in May of 2022 for Being too sexually explicit
Indian River County School District, Florida in November 2021
Forsyth County Schools, Georgia in January 2022
  LMariaHG | Oct 2, 2023 |
What I find most compelling about this book is a main character that is neither hero nor anti-hero. Offred is merely a person thrown into a horrifying world who reacts in a most human manner. Her actions are not the the things we dream of daring or the things we fear to do. Rather, they are the almost inconceivably mundane responses that the mind latches onto in a desperate attempt to cling to sanity when circumstances take us to the edge of our tolerance. ( )
  Zoes_Human | Oct 1, 2023 |
Excellent Read! (WARNING: Spoiler)

I read this after having been a fan of the Hulu series. The novel has some incredible insights that the series just can't explain, as a person can't hear the character's thoughts on-screen. Of course, I gave it a four star and not a five, only because the ending felt unfinished, as if a chapter had been cut out. And I don't say this because I've seen the series. Just ending it with her leaving in a van, there were so many unanswered questions for me. Was she pregnant? Did she live? What was her real name? What happens to Nick? What about Moira? I think that is probably how most readers felt when this novel first came out, and were most likely ecstatic when the series was created, because so many of these questions could now be answered, and with the freedom to create new storylines. I haven't read the sequel yet, but I look forward to it. ( )
  NicoleScuderi | Sep 14, 2023 |
I won't say a lot about this book as it's nearly all been said in the wake of the television series (which I have not seen.) This is a disturbing book and I wish I could say it is is far-fetched. Some of the specifics are, perhaps, but in general terms it is frighteningly possible.

And as a side note, I do like Atwood's style and want to seek out more of her work. ( )
  Kim.Sasso | Aug 27, 2023 |
This is one of those books that everyone is supposed to have read, but there's a good chance you haven't. But you think you know the story. This is bleaker than that--a haunting tale of subjection and powerlessness that seems without end.

If you have the opportunity, the audio book read by Claire Danes is the way to do this. It's a first-person narrative and she does an exquisite (Audie Award-winning) job of bringing it to life. ( )
  zot79 | Aug 20, 2023 |
date ▼ | votes
Showing 1-5 of 1058 (next | show all)
?
▾Published reviews
▾Other authors

» Add other authors (31 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Atwood, Margaret—primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Balbusso, AnnaIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Balbusso, ElenaIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Boyd, FlorenceCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Danes, ClaireNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
David, JoannaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Marcellino, FredCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Martin, ValerieIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Moss, ElisabethNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Pennati, CamilloTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Belongs to Publisher Series

Is contained in

Has the adaptation

Is abridged in

Is expanded in

Inspired

Has as a reference guide/companion

Has as a study

Has as a commentary on the text

Has as a student's study guide

▾Awards and Honors

Awards

Distinctions

Notable Lists

view history
▾Common Knowledge
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
The Handmaid's Tale
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
1985
People/Characters
Offred
The Commander (Fred)
Serena Joy
Nick
Moira
Important places
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Republic of Gilead
The Wall
Rachel & Leah Centre (Red Centre)
The Colonies
Important events
Related movies
The Handmaid’s Tale (1990 | IMDb)
The Handmaid’s Tale (2017 | IMDb)
Awards and honors
Prix Aurora Award finalist (Long-Form Work in English, 1986)
Booker Prize Shortlist (1986)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (1987)
Nebula Nominee (1986.1 | Novel, 1986)
Prometheus Award Shortlist (Novel, 1987)
Epigraph
And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel, and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

And she said, Behold my maid Bihah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her.
                              — Genesis 30:1–3
But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal . . .
                              — Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones.
                              — Sufi proverb
Dedication
For Mary Webster and Perry Miller
First words
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium.
Quotations
As all historians know, the past is a great darkness, and filled with echoes. Voices may reach us from it; but what they say to us is imbued with the obscurity of the matrix out of which they come; and, try as we may, we cannot always decipher them precisely in the clearer light of our own day.
Time has not stood still. It has washed over me, washed me away, as if I’m nothing more than a woman of sand, left by a careless child too near the water.
The shell of the egg is smooth but also grained; small pebbles of calcium are defined by the sunlight, like craters on the moon. It’s a barren landscape, yet perfect; it’s the sort of desert the saints went into, so their minds would not be distracted by profusions. I think that this is what God must look like: an egg. The life of the moon may not be on the surface, but inside.
But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest. Maybe none of this is about control ... Maybe it’s about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing.
There is more than one kind of freedom, said Aunt Lydia, freedom to and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
The Reading Guide Edition is the substantial equivalent the main Handmaid's Tale work, with a few additional pages of questions for groups to consider at the back. Please therefore leave these works combined together. Thank you
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
O'Brien, Conor Cruise
Carter, Angela
Gould, Lois
Doctorow, E. L.
Rossner, Judith
Original language
English
Canonical DDC/MDS
813.54
Canonical LCC
PR9199.3.A8
▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (4)

▾Book descriptions
This look at the near future presents the story of Offred, a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead, once the United States, an oppressive world where women are no longer allowed to read and are valued only as long as they are viable for reproduction.
▾Library descriptions

No library descriptions found.

?
▾LibraryThing members' description
Book description
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.
Haiku summary

Popular covers

Quick Links

Amazon.com (direct)
Abebooks.com
Amazon Kindle (0 editions)
Audible (0 editions)
CD Audiobook (0 editions)
Project Gutenberg (0 editions)
Google Books — Loading...
WorldCat

Genres

Melvil Decimal System (DDC)

813.54Literature › English (North America) › American fiction › 20th Century › 1945-1999

LC Classification

PR9199.A8Language and Literature › English › English Literature › English literature: Provincial, local, etc.

Rating

Average: (4.1)
0.5 18
1 159
1.5 16
2 442
2.5 94
3 1587
3.5 444
4 4198
4.5 566
5 4366

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 195,027,999 books! | Top bar: Scrolls with page
Copyright LibraryThing and/or members of LibraryThing, authors, publishers, libraries, cover designers, Amazon, Bol, Bruna, etc.