The Handmaid's Tale: Amazon.co.uk: Margaret Atwood: Books

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Product Description
The Republic of Gilead offers Offred only one function: to breed. If she deviates, she will, like dissenters, be hanged at the wall or sent out to die slowly of radiation sickness. But even a repressive state cannot obliterate desire - neither Offred's nor that of the two men on which her future hangs... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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'Compulsively readable' Daily Telegraph
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

128 Reviews

5 star:		(76)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

Average Customer Review

4.2 out of 5 stars (128 customer reviews)

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59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still good 20 years on, 3 Sep 2006

By	Magpie (Czech Republic) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary classics) (Paperback)

I still don't know what inspired me to take this book home from the library that day back when I was 16- up until then the only "grown up" literature I had read had been formulaic historical romances of the Catherine Cookson variety.

I can now credit this book with opening the door to a whole different world of books from what I was used to- books that demanded me to THINK.

And, being only 16, and not reading this book as part of my English class but rather just for myself, I was swept away by it.

Then, a couple of years ago, I got hold of a copy and read it again, curious if it would still seem so mind-blowing (I remember re-reading my beloved Narnia stories as an adult and getting the shock of my life).

And I can say that, half a life later, this book remains one of the best books I have ever read. Why?

I am still amazed at the author's imagination. How did she manage to describe the menace of a totalitarian regime so well? Science Fiction often dates quickly, seeming at best naive decades after it was written. And for me, reading this book 20-odd years after it was written, in this older and wiser post-9/11 world, certain aspects of the book took on new meaning (religious fundamental regime, strict rules about women's dress, football stadium executions).

It may not be a perfect book, but I think it is worth reading for its ideas (and warnings). And all that aside, it's a gripping read!

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than a feminist polemic ..., 22 Jan 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Handmaid's Tale (Contemporary classics) (Paperback)

... it's a rattling good read.

Think about your ability to browse through an internet shop, the power you have to earn money, to hold it and to choose how you spend it. Think about your right to education, should you chose to exercise it. Think about warmth and love and husbands and children.

Imagine all that taken away, the sense of loss, love vanquished, family disappeared, and the comfort of books denied you. Imagine women colluding in oppressing their own sex.

But there is redemption in subversion and small acts of defiance.

It's a clever book, ideas subtly woven, like a fairy tale invoking the dark with the faint promise of light.

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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A beautifully crafted and utterly absorbing narrative, 16 Dec 2000

By	penny@btinternet.com (Ipswich, English) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Handmaid's Tale (New Windmills) (Hardcover)

A stunning novel which depicts a world all too possible in reaction to today's permissive society. It tells the story of Offred, condemned after a military coup, in which she is forcibly separated from her husband and daughter, to become a handmaid, whose function is to produce a child for an infertile older woman. Atwood's remarkable non-linear narrative technique takes getting used to, the main plot being punctuated by both recent and 'time before' flashbacks, but the story is so absorbing that you quickly get accustomed to the style. The novel is eloquently written with its fascination for the nuances of language; (natural communication is suppressed, a common feature of dystopian fiction.) As time passes, Offred's desire for freedom and determination to resist the regime (a Christian fundamentalist state, closely based on misogynistic Old Testament teachings) increase. We are entirely gripped by her plight and willing her to succeed. Does she? You will need to read the book to find out, but I can promise you, you will not anticipate the very unusual ending.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Scarily reflective of the modern world...
This book was OK. I wanted to like it more than I actually did. If I'm honest I found it a little slow and it jumped around through time which made it seem disjointed... Read more

Published 2 days ago by Kirsty B

4.0 out of 5 stars A feminist tract.
Several reviews have already pointed out that The Handmaid's Tale is a feminist novel, but I'm not sure that the point has been entirely grasped. Read more

Published 4 days ago by NJC

4.0 out of 5 stars Form and Content
Other reviews have covered the content well enough. It's quite good and in places very lyrical but sometimes it felt a little dated. Read more

Published 8 days ago by J. Hunter

1.0 out of 5 stars weird
I can see why this is used as an examination text, it has lots of deep messages and explores implications of social interaction in different circumstances. Read more

Published 1 month ago by J. Southern

1.0 out of 5 stars Uninspiring
This novel (about the life of a women living in a truly awful totalitarian state in which everybody is suppressed) I found lacks significance, worthiness and meaningfulness; it... Read more

Published 2 months ago by booky dude

4.0 out of 5 stars Margaret Atwood's Handmaid's Tale (1985)
The post-revolutionary theocratic society of Gilead is a unique and difficult society unlike any and has a set of new and unconventional rules based around the new problem of... Read more

Published 6 months ago by H. Young

5.0 out of 5 stars Shockingly good
I have never written a review online of anything before, but having just finished The Handmaid's Tale I felt compelled to do so at once. Read more

Published 6 months ago by The Strawberry One

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and thought provoking story
An incredible story that is difficult to describe in a short few sentences. It was certainly a very thought provoking book and I really wanted to discuss it with someone else... Read more

Published 8 months ago by Alison

5.0 out of 5 stars It doesn't matter what you feel, it only matters how you behave
What a wonderful book, written in the style of 1984 and Kazuo Ishiguro's Never let me go. I find Margaret Atwood's books hard to put down once I have started them, and cannot... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Em

5.0 out of 5 stars How to do theocratic dystopia...
A truly great book, particular for those who have cold feet about Speculative Fiction (aka Sci Fi). A post-apocalyptic take on loss, resistance, feminism and social order of the... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Pablo K

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