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 …
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 nominated for the 1986 Nebula Award, the 1986 Booker Prize, and the 1987 Prometheus Award. The book has been adapted into a 1990 film, a 2000 opera, a 2017 television series, and other media.
The ebook version was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.A sequel novel, The Testaments, was published in 2019.
I was warned this book is not a fun one. Indeed it is not.
You get to see the omnipresent fear and violence of a patriarchal surveillance state. You get to see how it got there, little by little, and how it got accepted. The disturbing part is that it is very much believable...
I hadn't seen since Orwell's "1984" the effect of a totalitarian system on an individual so well described, especially at an individual level. You get to see how a single mind resists or breaks when faced with such overwhelming brutal and oppressive environment.
It is definitely worth reading, especially when you keep in mind the fact that Atwood has been censored in several US states.
I read the Handmaid's Tale yesterday, finally. I'm disappointed. I did not like the writing style at all, there was no real story, just descriptions. And then it just ended. No conclusion or anything.
My best guess it's because the TV show was so intense and well made (at least the earlier seasons), and the book was... Not? Episodes would stay with me for days, but I'm struggling to recall the book.
Maybe the book is supposed to be unsatisfying to go with the theme. Nothing much happened after Gilead was created, every day just kinda goes by. Sure there was some torture and death, but... Eh.
Maybe I was expecting too much after all the praise it got. It's my first Atwood book, and way way outside of my usual genre (fantasy, scifi, horror).
Una novel·la que enganxa des del primer paràgraf i que et fa pensar com poden arribar a passar coses tan bèsties
5 izar
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 …
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 de reproductores i de mà d’obra. El que més em va cridar l’atenció, i em va fer rumiar, és que el canvi de la societat actual a aquesta societat medieval representa que es produeix molt ràpidament, en tres o quatre anys arran d’un cop d’estat violent i una cruelíssima repressió subsegüent.
Margaret Atwood fa com Ursula K. Le Guin , en poques línies és capaç de dibuixar un nou món, una nova societat amb formes de funcionament diferent de les nostres, però que ens fa rumiar precisament sobre el nostre temps i espai. La narració, és sempre en veu de dona, els homes, malgrat a Galaad tene un paper preeminent, queden bandejats com a personatges secundaris sense massa més interès. Un bon canvi del punt de vista que ajuda a entendre la situació de la dona.
Afortunadament, hi ha una resistència que, tanmateix, a l’inici del règim, es limita a treure les dones de Galaad i dur-les al veí Canadà. Una petita esperança, però que no arriba a tothom perquè, prou bé ho sabem, els règims totalitaris triomfen per les traïcions d’alguns del grup de les víctimes.
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.
