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. In 2022, The Handmaid's Tale was included on the " Big Jubilee Read" list of 70 books by Commonwealth authors, selected to celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. [12] The book has been adapted into a 1990 film, a 2000 opera, a 2017 television series, and other media. An ebook version was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 1986. [13] A sequel novel, The Testaments, was published in 2019. In Atwood's original novel, Offred's real name is never revealed. In Volker Schlöndorff's 1990 film adaptation Offred was given the real name Kate, [29] while the television series gave her the real name June. Offred is the protagonist and narrator who takes the readers through life in Gilead. She was labelled a "wanton woman" when Gilead was established because she had married a man who was divorced. All divorces were nullified by the new government, meaning her husband was now considered still married to his first wife, making Offred an adulteress. In trying to escape Gilead, she was separated from her husband and daughter. [28] Jezebels are women who are forced to become prostitutes and entertainers. They are available only to the Commanders and to their guests. Offred portrays Jezebels as attractive and educated; they may be unsuitable as Handmaids due to temperament. They have been sterilized, a surgery that is forbidden to other women. They operate in unofficial but state-sanctioned brothels, unknown to most women. Brown, Sarah (15 April 2008). Tragedy in Transition. John Wiley & Sons. p.45. ISBN 9780470691304. Archived from the original on 23 March 2023 . Retrieved 3 October 2020.

The action takes place in what once was the Harvard Square neighbourhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts; [34] [35] Atwood studied at Radcliffe College, located in this area. As a researcher, Atwood spent a lot of time in the Widener Library at Harvard which in the novel serves as a setting for the headquarters of the Gilead Secret Service. [11] Gilead society [ edit ] Religion [ edit ] What are you hoping readers take away from the graphic novel that they might not have gotten from the original novel?

Traitor! Traitor?

The story is told in first-person narration by a woman named Offred. In this era of environmental pollution and radiation, she is one of the few remaining fertile women. Therefore, she is forcibly assigned to produce children for the "Commanders", the ruling class of men, and is known as a "Handmaid" based on the biblical story of Rachel and her handmaid Bilhah. She undergoes training to become a handmaid along with other women of her standing at the Rachel and Leah Centre. Jews are named an exception and classified Sons of Jacob. Offred observes that Jews refusing to convert are allowed to emigrate from Gilead to Israel, and most choose to leave. However, in the epilogue, Professor Pieixoto reveals that many of the emigrating Jews ended up being dumped into the sea while on the ships ostensibly tasked with transporting them to Israel, due to privatization of the "repatriation program" and capitalists' effort to maximize profits. Offred mentions that many Jews who chose to stay were caught secretly practising Judaism and executed. Berry, Gregory R. (June 2010). "Book Review: Margaret Atwood The Year of the Flood New York, NY: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2009". Organization & Environment. 23 (2): 248–250. doi: 10.1177/1086026610368388. ISSN 1086-0266. S2CID 143937316. American Library Association (26 March 2013). "Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists". Advocacy, Legislation & Issues. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019 . Retrieved 5 March 2021. I don't know if I should be happy that I didn't read the book first before reading the graphic novel adaptation. Because that's enough for days to come. Because the story is a nightmare.

Lyman, David (24 January 2015). " Handmaid's Tale offers extreme view of future". Cincinnati.com. Archived from the original on 10 June 2020 . Retrieved 16 October 2015. The novel concludes with a metafictional epilogue, described as a partial transcript of an international historical association conference taking place in the year 2195. The keynote speaker explains that Offred's account of the events of the novel was recorded onto cassette tapes later found and transcribed by historians studying what is then called "the Gilead Period". Clements, Andrew (5 April 2003). "Classical music & opera". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on 11 August 2016 . Retrieved 13 December 2016.Oates, Joyce Carol (2 November 2006). "Margaret Atwood's Tale". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 10 April 2016 . Retrieved 29 March 2016. A horror story, and as with almost all horror/sci fi/fantasy stories, frighteningly close to the world we live in.

Rita is a Martha at Commander Fred's house. Her job is cooking and housekeeping and is one of the members of the "household". At the start of the novel, Rita has a contempt for Offred and though she is responsible for keeping Offred well fed, she believes a Handmaid should prefer going to the Colonies over working as a sexual slave. Andriano, Joseph. " The Handmaid's Tale as Scrabble Game". Critical Insights: The Handmaid's Tale, edited by J. Brooks Bouson, Salem, 2009. Salem Online. It’s an ending which left me totally cold. As an object lesson, as a meditation on how easily a group can be subjugated, it is horrific but all too realistic. As dystopian SF, it is chilling in the extreme. But as a story, it felt like it didn’t so much end as trail off. The women in training to be Handmaids whisper names across their beds at night. The names are "Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June", and all are later accounted for except June. In addition, one of the Aunts tells the Handmaids-in-training to stop "mooning and June-ing". [30] From this and other references, some readers have inferred that her birth name could be "June". [31] Academic Madonne Miner suggests that "June" is a pseudonym. As "Mayday" is the name of the Gilead resistance, June could be an invention by the protagonist. The Nunavut conference covered in the epilogue takes place in June. [32] Why Hulu's Handmaid's Tale May Be the Wrong Adaptation for Trump Era". Religion Dispatches. 25 April 2018 . Retrieved 13 March 2022.My first task was to adapt it into a script that would work as a graphic novel. A lot had to be cut out and shifted around. I made a movie-style script for the publishers and for Margaret. I went through the novel over and over again with a highlighter and tried to figure out what passages made the novel what it is, the essence of it." a b c Atwood, Margaret (May 2004). " The Handmaid's Tale and Oryx and Crake 'In Context' ". PMLA. 119 (3): 513–517. doi: 10.1632/003081204X20578. S2CID 162973994. a b c Williams, Layton E. (25 April 2017). "Margaret Atwood on Christianity, The Handmaid's Tale, and What Faithful Activism Looks Like Today". Sojourners. Archived from the original on 1 April 2019 . Retrieved 18 June 2017.