Forty years ago, Margaret Atwood’s cautionary tale was published – a novel that would go on to become one of the most defining dystopian works of modern times
The Handmaid's Tale
Written by Margaret Atwood
- Shortlisted
- The Booker Prize 1986
- Published by Jonathan Cape
Buy the book
In Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopian classic, nothing happens ‘that hasn’t already happened at some time or another’
Offred is a national resource. In the Republic of Gilead her viable ovaries make her a precious commodity, and the state allows her only one function: to breed. As a Handmaid she carries no name except her Master’s, for whose barren wife she must act as a surrogate. Dissenters are supposed to end up either at the Wall, where they are hanged, or in the Colonies, to die a lingering death from radiation sickness. But the irrepressible Moira shows Offred that it is possible to cheat the system.
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood is the world-renowned author of more than 50 books of fiction, poetry and critical essays
More about Margaret Atwood Listen to an extract from The Handmaid's Tale
Winner of Best Audiobook (Fiction) at the New York Festival Radio Awards 2020, The Handmaid’s Tale is narrated by Elisabeth Moss, who plays Offred in the TV adaptation of the book.
Listen to the full audiobook here
Penguin Books UK · The Handmaid’s Tale
Atwood has succeeded with her anti-Utopian novel where most practitioners of this Orwellian genre have tended to fail
The handmaiden as protest symbol
Three decades on from the release of The Handmaid’s Tale, a new generation has adopted Margaret Atwood’s handmaidens.
In 2016, Atwood’s handmaidens became a symbol of resistance around the world. Although the distinctive red cape and white bonnet is a sign of oppression in the novel, the outfit has become a sign of feminist protest, worn by women protesting for abortion rights in Ireland, against the state visit of Donald Trump in London and at the Women’s March on Washington, DC upon Trump’s inauguration.
Atwood told the Guardian in 2018: “The handmaid’s costume has been adopted by women in many countries as a symbol of protest about various issues having to do with the requisitioning of women’s bodies by the state.
A protestor on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC in 2018
© Chip Somodevilla / Getty
“It has even been used on posters in the context of the Trump-Putin relationship, with Trump as the handmaid. Because it’s a visual symbol, women can use it without fear of being arrested for causing a disturbance, as they would be for shouting in places like legislatures.
“No one can accuse them of being immodest: they are well covered up. But everyone seeing these groups of women know what they mean in the context of the individual protest, whether it be Ireland, Argentina, or Arizona.”
Protestors outside the United States Supreme Court in Washington, DC in 2020.
© Samuel Corum / Getty Images
The Handmaid's Tale on screen
In 2017 The Handmaid’s Tale was adapted for television, with Elisabeth Moss in the role of Offred. The show was praised by critics, with Sam Wollaston of the Guardian saying: “It is a brilliant adaptation – some changes, but loyal in what it says and what it asks.”
The show has won awards including an Emmys in 2017 for Outstanding Drama Series and for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Elisabeth Moss, and the Best International Programme award at the 2018 BAFTA Television Awards.
Watch the full series on Channel 4 here.
Elisabeth Moss as Offred in The Handmaid’s Tale.
© MGM TELEVISION / Alamy
This is a test of The Handmaid’s Tale trailer to see if special characters work in video captions in the media slice & render ok.
Other nominated books by Margaret Atwood
Margaret Atwood’s spellbinding sequel to The Handmaid's Tale was inspired by readers’ responses to the first book and ‘the world we’ve been living in’
Margaret Atwood projects us into a less-than-brave new world, an outlandish yet wholly believable space populated by a cast of memorable characters
Margaret Atwood’s 2000 Booker winner is a multilayered drama that weaves its narrative threads across past and present, fiction and reality
Margaret Atwood’s captivating historical fiction about the notorious 1843 murders of Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery
In Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed novel, an artist returning to her home city is consumed by images of the lavish cruelties she endured there as a child
Features
- Book recommendations
11 Booker-nominated books with the most memorable endings
- Book recommendations
Booker Prize books that have been adapted for film and television
- Book recommendations
- Long read
‘It can all explode in an instant’: Naomi Alderman on the unshakeable relevance of The Handmaid’s Tale
- Reading guides
Reading guide: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Book recommendations
14 Booker-nominated books that will change your worldview, as chosen by our readers
- Book recommendations
Where to start with Margaret Atwood: a guide to her best books
- Book recommendations
Eight Booker Prize-nominated books for World Environment Day
- Book recommendations
70 classic Booker Prize-nominated novels, recommended by our readers
- Book recommendations