The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood · first published 1985
26% recommend66% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Dystopian novel imagining society moving backwards rather than forward, with a plausible, unsettling premise. Praised as well written and literary, it suits readers who enjoy dystopias or want more than genre sci-fi.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 the Republic of Gilead, which 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 in Gilead. The novel explores themes of subjugated women in a patriarchal society, loss of female agency and individuality, and
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Lots of dystopian and alternate world sci-fi (most recently read first): 1) The Handmaid’s Tale 2) Off to be the Wizard 3) The Three-Body Problem 4) Good Omens 5) We Are Legion (We Are Bob) 6) American Gods 7) Ready Player One I really enjoyed all of these, though the Neil Gaiman books are…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…wherein the idea is the important part, e.g. Snow Crash; and Type-II, where the the SF part is just an artifice to expose and explore aspects of humanity or some deep philosophical issue, e.g. Solaris, The Handmaid's Tale or the stories of James Tiptree Jr. (you've got to read "Houston, Houston Do You Read"). Works of the second type don't really need to push big ideas or ideologies. In fact, for most of these, the SF…
on “Science Fiction, big ideas, ideology: what is to be done?” ↗1) The Stories of Ibis by Hiroshi Yamamoto (my almost-annual re-reading) 2) The Collapsing Empire - John Scalzi 3) The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood I have a feeling the book I am reading now - Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith might have been on this list if I had finished it (and might still be tomorrow).
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2017?” ↗…my usual collection of science fiction and cookbooks to read books from female authors. I strongly recommend each: 1. Pride and Prejudiced by Jane Austen 2. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 3. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood edit: line breaks
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…book of her poetry (Penelopiad) to a friend of mine, a talented poet herself. She said it made her angry: this was what she'd been aiming for her whole life, and Atwood made it look easy. I'm glad that Handmaid's Tale has brought her to a wider audience. It would be easy for her to be shunted into "genre fiction" for that book, or into "chick lit" for most of her other novels. But she's one of the most gifted prose…
on “The Making of Margaret Atwood” ↗…Brave New World and 1984 are completely different from the former to, and from each other. I love dystopian fiction, so I've read tons of it. My current favorite writer in the genre is Margaret Atwood ("Handmaid's Tale" and "Oryx and Crake"). So I guess if you don't really enjoy reading speculative fiction with a gloomy outlook on the future, maybe you only need to read one of them (probably 1984, since it's the one…
on “Ayn Rand's Literature of Capitalism” ↗…The whole Hitchhikers' series is a must, while the Dirk Gently stuff is also funny, but not sci-fi and not mandatory. I mentioned in another thread my love of dystopias, and one of the best ever is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. She's one of the best sci-fi writers alive (she doesn't exclusively write sci-fi, however). Oryx and Crake is also fascinating. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. I enjoy all of Vonnegut's…
on “Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?” ↗…Footfall Gibson: Neuromancer Stephenson: Snow Crash, The Diamond Age Bear: The Forge of God, Eon Sagan: Contact van Vogt: The Voyage of the Space Beagle Lem: Solaris Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale LeGuin: The Left Hand of Darkness Lewis: Out of the Silent Planet Some of these are the beginnings of series or have sequels, or exist in a larger continuum of stories. But each can be read and…
on “Beginnings of Science Fiction” ↗…guess is that plenty of people here have read it. Great read about the fall of civilization due to a massive flu outbreak. Room by Emma Donoghue - Beautiful, heartbreaking, troubling and uplifting. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - A classic, glad to finally read it. The Room by Jonas Karlsson - Absurdist take on corporate life about a man who finds a room in his office building that shouldn't be there. Welcome…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2015?” ↗…"Collapse: how societies choose to fail or succeed" (non-fiction) Iván Repila - "The Boy Who Stole Attila’s Horse": short intense novel about 2 boys who are trapped in a well Margaret Atwood - "The handmaid's tale" Khaled Hosseini - "The kite runner" Agatha Christie - "The murder of Roger Ackroyd" (very surprising plot) Andy Weir - "The Martian" Charles Dickens - "David Copperfield" Clare Mackintosh - "I let…
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite books of all time, and why?” ↗Fiction: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood Nonfiction: The Banker's New Cloths by Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig Full list: https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2017/63629672
on “Ask HN: What is the best book you read on 2017?” ↗I didn't mention the show, isn't this thread and article about books? > It was a thinly veiled world-building exercise on the subjection of women in Islam… then it ends. Nothing really happens. The Handmaid's Tale wasn't about Islam but about religious Christian fundamentalism and, by Atwood's own words, an extrapolation of trends she saw in the US. It's a good book, it seems contentious to list it as a "bad book"…
on “Dua Lipa opens library for banned and censored books in Portugal” ↗I only recently read The Handmaid's Tale, and it hit pretty hard. Especially because it, like any good story of that type, is not nearly so outlandish as it seems. Things that might have seemed absurd at the time in Brave New World and 1984…
on “Margaret Atwood, a Prophet of Dystopia” ↗They did a bad job on sci-fi, I think -- while I liked Dune, it certainly isn't the one SF book I'd include. The Handmaid's Tale is far better, but is listed as "Feminist Speculative Fiction"; if I'd read the category first, I would have skipped the book, but the book is great, along with her other writing. In a list of 100, I'd…
on “Books to Read in a Lifetime” ↗I really enjoyed Handmaid's Tale when I read it. Of course, I didn't read it for school, which might make all the difference.
on “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower” ↗