The Handmaid's Tale

de
Pas de couverture

Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid's Tale (Hardcover, 1986, Houghton Mifflin Company)

Hardcover, 311 pages

Langue : English

Publié 17 février 1986 par Houghton Mifflin Company.

ISBN :
978-0-395-40425-6
ISBN copié !
Numéro OCLC :
12558693
ASIN :
B003JFJHTS

Voir sur OpenLibrary

5 étoiles (3 critiques)

The Handmaid's Tale is not only a radical and brilliant departure for Margaret Atwood, it is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States, now called the Republic of Gilead, a monotheocracy that has reacted to social unrest and a sharply declining birthrate by reverting to, and going beyond, the repressive intolerance of the original Puritans. The regime takes the Book of Genesis absolutely at its word, with bizarre consequences for the women and men of its population.

The story is told through the eyes of Offred, one of the unfortunate Handmaids under the new social order. In condensed but eloquent prose, by turns cool-eyed, tender, despairing, passionate, and wry, she reveals to us the dark corners behind the establishment's calm facade, as certain tendencies …

46 éditions

a publié une critique de La servante écarlate par Margaret Atwood

Not so speculative fiction

5 étoiles

I was warned this book is not a fun one. Indeed it is not.

You get to see the omnipresent fear and violence of a patriarchal surveillance state. You get to see how it got there, little by little, and how it got accepted. The disturbing part is that it is very much believable...

I hadn't seen since Orwell's "1984" the effect of a totalitarian system on an individual so well described, especially at an individual level. You get to see how a single mind resists or breaks when faced with such overwhelming brutal and oppressive environment.

It is definitely worth reading, especially when you keep in mind the fact that Atwood has been censored in several US states.

a publié une critique de Handmaid's Tale par Margaret Atwood

a classic

5 étoiles

I read this classic just two years ago. It felt more relevant to the present than it may have been when it was written. This book is a revolutionary milestone in speculative fiction and probably feminist literature as well, but I found equally interesting that the text is based on progressive loss of innocence. The final chapter is incredible and left me very satisfied.

Sujets

  • Man-woman relationships
  • Misogyny
  • Fiction
  • Women