WHEN FREEDOM BECAME FICTION

Atwood, Margaret (1939– )

The Handmaid's Tale [Modern Dystopian Classic]

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986.

A NOVEL THAT REDEFINED MODERN DYSTOPIAN FICTION.
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale presents a chilling vision of a near-future America transformed into the theocratic Republic of Gilead, where personal freedoms have been replaced by rigid social control. Through the experiences of Offred, one of the state's Handmaids, Atwood explores themes of power, identity, memory, and resistance in prose that is both restrained and deeply unsettling.

Published in 1986, the novel quickly established itself as one of the defining works of late twentieth-century literature. Its exploration of authoritarianism, gender, and religious extremism has ensured its continuing relevance, introducing new generations of readers to one of the modern era's most influential speculative novels.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Light blue cloth spine lettered in white over gray paper-covered boards. Octavo; 9 inches tall; [8] 311 pages. Second Printing of the First Edition.

CONDITION: Fine in a Fine dust jacket. An exceptionally clean, bright, and unread example with no flaws or blemishes noted. A New, gift-quality copy.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE: A MODERN CAUTIONARY CLASSIC —
Rather than imagining technology as the principal threat to society, Atwood envisioned the gradual erosion of democratic institutions through ideology, fear, and the selective use of history and religion. Her imagined Republic of Gilead has become one of the most recognizable fictional dystopias of the modern age.

FROM NOVEL TO CULTURAL LANDMARK.
Winner of the inaugural Arthur C. Clarke Award and shortlisted for the Booker Prize, The Handmaid's Tale has remained continuously influential through numerous editions, classroom adoption, stage adaptations, and the acclaimed television series. Its themes continue to resonate in discussions of censorship, civil liberties, reproductive rights, and political authority.

ATWOOD AT HER BEST.
Combining literary craftsmanship with speculative fiction, Atwood created a work that functions simultaneously as political satire, psychological narrative, and enduring literary fiction. It remains the novel most closely associated with her international reputation and one of the defining books of contemporary Canadian literature.

SUBJECTS: Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, Dystopian Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Feminist Literature, Gilead, Canadian Literature, Modern Classics, Political Fiction, Literary Fiction, Modern Literature; Dystopian Fiction; Speculative Fiction; Canadian Literature.

Item #22249
ISBN: 0395404258

Price: $75.00