02500cam a2200361 4500 547149908 TxAuBib 20100322120000.0 011025s1986||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 85021944 9780385490818 paperback 038549081X paperback 9780395404256 0395404258 MNH TxAuBib Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939- The handmaid's tale / Margaret Atwood. Boston : Houghton Mifflin Company, 1986. 311 pages : PAPER ; 24 cm. Night -- Shopping -- Night -- Waiting room -- Nap -- Household -- Night -- Birth day -- Night -- Soul scrolls -- Night -- Jezebel's -- Night -- Salvaging -- Night -- Historical notes. 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 world, 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 façade, as certain tendencies now in existence are carried to their logical conclusions. The Handmaid's Tale is funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing. It is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force. It is Margaret Atwood at her best"--Book jacket. 20100322. Man-woman relationships Fiction. Misogyny Fiction. Women Fiction. Political corruption Fiction. Political prisoners Fiction. Political crime and offenses Fiction. Dystopian fiction. Fantasy fiction. Science fiction. TXKDM