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A Study Guide (New Edition) for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"
A Study Guide (New Edition) for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"
A Study Guide (New Edition) for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"
Ebook47 pages28 minutes

A Study Guide (New Edition) for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

By Gale and Cengage

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A Study Guide (New Edition) for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale", excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Novels for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Novels for Students for all of your research needs."
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 15, 2019
ISBN9780028666341
A Study Guide (New Edition) for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale"

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    A Study Guide (New Edition) for Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" - Gale

    18

    The Handmaid's Tale

    Margaret Atwood

    1985

    Introduction

    Canadian author Margaret Atwood's short stories, essays, novels, and poetry have always been popular with readers. Over her long career, she has also become increasingly respected by academics. In 1988, critic Judith McCombs described Atwood as Canada's most studied contemporary writer, and in the three decades since, the number of articles and books examining her work have multiplied exponentially.

    One remarkable indicator of her skill as a writer is her ability to create speculative fiction that critics take seriously. Her MaddAddam Trilogy is widely regarded as a masterpiece, and her 1985 novel The Handmaid's Tale has continually grown both in its popularity—the story has been adapted into a movie, an opera, and an acclaimed web series—and in its reputation in literary circles.

    The Handmaid's Tale is set in a dystopian theocracy (the Republic of Gilead) in which the powerful live in luxury, while most people live in fear of the harsh punishments doled out for deviating from strictly defined social roles. Because of severely declining birth rates, the few women who remain fertile are assigned the role of handmaids, attached to the household of a wealthy, important man to bear him a child if his wife cannot. Because of the handmaids' role in society, the novel contains some frank, if not explicit, discussion of sexual matters. Therefore, the book may not be appropriate for some younger students.

    Author Biography

    Margaret Eleanor Atwood was born on November 18, 1939, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. For much of her childhood, her family split their time between Toronto and northern Canada, where her father conducted research as an entomologist. Their quiet life in the Canadian wilderness suited her natural interest in reading and writing. As young as five years old she was creating stories, and she started a novel at age six.

    In high school she grew more serious about her writing, focusing on poetry, and by sixteen, she had decided to pursue a career as a writer. She earned her bachelor's degree at Victoria College, at the University of Toronto, in 1961 and continued her studies at Harvard University's Radcliffe College, finishing a master's in English literature in 1962. Her first published work was a collection of poetry titled Double Persephone (1961), which was followed by The Circle Game in 1964 and The Animals in That Country in 1968. Common themes in Atwood's poetry include nature and women finding their place in society.

    Media Adaptations

    Audible Studios produced an unabridged recording of The Handmaid's Tale in 2012, with actress Claire Danes narrating. Running time of the recording is eleven hours.

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