Handmaid's Tale, The

Written in the politically turbulent 1980s, Margaret Atwood's feminist novel examines a world in which women are stripped of their rights after an ultra right-wing group takes control of the United States. Find here character lists, summary and analysis, critical views and more.

Atwood's best known novel depicts one woman's struggle to survive in a futuristic society in which women have become property. Critical views of The handmaid's Tale by various authors; discussion of dystopia and more.

Volume I, Pages 20, 81, 93-94 and 175-178 provide treatment of "The Handmaid's Tale."

Literature and Its Times provides the historical background of 300 of the most-studied novels, plays, poems, speeches and short stories.

Page 158 has further for a discussion of "The Handmaid's Tale."

Page 110 includes further discussion of "The Handmaid's Tale."

In The Handmaid's Tale and Philosophy, philosophers give their insights into the blockbuster best-selling novel and record-breaking TV series. Beneath the theocratic preaching, there is the practical suggestion that everything is being arranged for the good of society and therefore of everyone. Who gets to decide and enforce what is in society's best interests?