"The Handmaid's Tale" First Edition of Magaret Atwood's Feminist Dystopia

Margaret Atwood

First Edition

[Sci-Fi/Specualtive Fiction][Feminism][Literature] Atwood, Margaret. The Handmaid’s Tale. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1986. First edition. 311 pages. Original blue-gray cloth binding. In publisher’s dust jacket with mylar protective sleeve. A cornerstone of contemporary feminist dystopian literature, The Handmaid’s Tale presents a chilling vision of patriarchal theocracy in the Republic of Gilead, where women are stripped of autonomy and reduced to reproductive vessels. Narrated by Offred, a woman conscripted into the role of a “handmaid,” the novel powerfully critiques the entanglement of religion, misogyny, and authoritarianism. Atwood, a Canadian author writing amid rising U.S. conservatism in the 1980s, refracts real-world anxieties about gender, surveillance, and bodily control through a speculative lens. Offred’s internal monologue has become emblematic of women’s struggle against subjugation. The novel was nominated for the Booker Prize and won the first-ever Arthur C. Clarke Award for science fiction in 1987. Its enduring resonance has led to academic canonization and adaptation into an acclaimed television series, further cementing its role in feminist literary and political discourse. Binding sound, internally clean and unmarked. Overall both book and DJ in very good to near fine condition. A landmark novel of speculative fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale is now considered one of the most important and prescient dystopian novels of the 20th century.

Item #22319

Price: $225.00