The Handmaid's Tale

English language

Published July 6, 2005

ISBN:
978-0-09-949695-3
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5 stars (3 reviews)

The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, published in 1985. It is set in a near-future New England, in a strongly patriarchal, totalitarian theonomic state, known as Republic of Gilead, that has overthrown the United States government. The central character and narrator is a woman named Offred, one of the group known as "handmaids", who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the "commanders" – the ruling class of men. The novel explores themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society and the various means by which they resist and attempt to gain individuality and independence. The novel's title echoes the component parts of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which is a series of connected stories (such as "The Merchant's Tale" and "The Parson's Tale").The Handmaid's Tale won the 1985 Governor General's Award and the first Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987; it was also …

14 editions

Una novel·la que enganxa des del primer paràgraf i que et fa pensar com poden arribar a passar coses tan bèsties

5 stars

Tenia pendent la lectura d’alguna cosa de la Margaret Atwood i, quan he aconseguit temps, he començat pel Conte de la serventa , la primera novel·la de la temàtica Galaad. M’he penedit de no haver-ho fet abans perquè m’ha enganxat a la lectura i no he parat fins a acabar el llibre i començar el segon, Els testaments , que comentaré un altre dia.

Primer de tot cal dir que l’autora té una mestria en l’escriptura que molts altres voldrien. A cada paràgraf hi passa alguna cosa, per petita que sigui, i això t’enganxa i et fa avançar amb ganes.

En segon lloc, el tema que tracta que no saps ben bé si és ciència-ficció o política ficció. No és la ci-fi de marcianets i maquinetes a què estem acostumats. Més aviat es tracta d’inventar un model de societat puritana, cristiana i retrògrada on les dones són relegades als papers …

A must read in the current political climate, but not in love with the writing style

4 stars

A must read in the current political climate. I like the Hulu TV show better than the book though... the book is good, but I just don't care for: 1) the confusing, random flashbacks in time that don't seem to be triggered by anything in the book's present time; 2) some of the deep, detailed dives into things such as the appearance of a flower. While Hemingway had an excessively sparse writing style for me, Atwood had a bit of an excessively flowery, purple-prose style at times for my taste; 3) the sensation that from the start of the book to the end of the book, nothing progressed. There didn't seem to be a plot, rather just a description of how awful life in Gilead was. Perhaps you can piece together a plot from some of the pre-Gilead flashbacks, but I prefer more linear storylines.

reviewed Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (The Handmaid's Tale, #1)

a classic

5 stars

I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.