The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Posted On 10/01/2025

This book that Handmaid Ofian is reading in the cupboard is the U.K. hardback first edition of The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood,

It has a a beautiful cover illustrated by Fred Marcellino.

The book itself was published in 1985, and is considered the urtext of female dystopian speculative fiction.

The perfect mirror image of chick lit.

Its central theme about the ups and downs of a woman called Offred* having a baby has now become a classic in the wake of the overturning of Roe v Wade in America.

Is June Offred’s Real Name?

The woman known as Offred is training to be Handmaid, they whisper their real names across their beds at night to retain a shred of humanity.

The names are “Alma. Janine. Dolores. Moira. June,” and all are later accounted for except June.

However, in 2017, Atwood later wrote in The New York Times that it was not her original intention to imply that Offred’s real name is June, “but it fits, so readers are welcome to it if they wish”.

Buy a rare pair of Margaret Atwood first editions of The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments

The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

#MargaretAtwood #TheHandmaidsTale

#Offred #Scrabble #FredMarcellino

#ElisabethMoss