The Handmaid’s Tale was published simultaneously by McClelland & Stewart (Toronto) and Jonathan Cape (London) in 1985, with the American edition following from Houghton Mifflin in 1986. The Canadian first printing was approximately 5,000 copies. The novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1986 and won the Governor General’s Award. It has since sold over eight million copies, been translated into forty languages, and become one of the most widely taught novels in English.
The Novel
Offred (her real name is never revealed — “Offred” means “of Fred,” her Commander) narrates her life in the Republic of Gilead — a theocratic military dictatorship that has replaced the United States government after a terrorist attack enabled a fundamentalist coup. Birth rates have plummeted due to pollution and disease; the few fertile women are assigned as “Handmaids” to elite Commanders, forced to bear children through ritualised rape (the “Ceremony,” based on the Biblical story of Rachel and Bilhah).
Offred remembers her previous life — her husband Luke, her daughter, her job, her friend Moira — through fragments and flashbacks. In the present, she negotiates the small violences and tiny rebellions of her circumscribed existence: illegal Scrabble games with the Commander, a covert affair with the chauffeur Nick, the dangerous companionship of other Handmaids.
Atwood’s genius is to show how quickly normal life can be dismantled. The transition from democracy to theocracy is rendered through Offred’s memories: credit cards cancelled, bank accounts frozen, women fired from their jobs — each step explained as “temporary” and “for your protection.” The novel demonstrates that totalitarianism succeeds not through sudden force but through incremental normalisation.
Cultural Impact
The novel’s cultural relevance has intensified dramatically since 2016. The Hulu television adaptation (2017–present), the red dresses and white bonnets adopted as protest symbols, and the political parallels identified by readers worldwide have made The Handmaid’s Tale a living political text rather than merely a literary one. Sales spiked 200% after the 2017 U.S. presidential inauguration.
Collecting The Handmaid’s Tale
Canadian first edition (1985, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto): Approximately 5,000 copies.
Identification points:
- Published by McClelland and Stewart
- “First edition” or first printing statement on copyright page
- Red cloth boards (some copies in paper-covered boards)
First edition (Canadian):
- Fine/Fine in dust jacket: $2,000–$6,000
- Near Fine in jacket: $800–$2,000
UK first edition (1985, Jonathan Cape, London):
- Fine/Fine in jacket: $1,500–$4,000
US first edition (1986, Houghton Mifflin):
- Fine/Fine in jacket: $500–$1,500
Signed copies: Atwood signs regularly at events and festivals. Signed first editions: $2,000–$5,000.
Value trajectory (2016–2026): Approximately 2.5× — the Hulu adaptation and political parallels have driven dramatic appreciation. One of the most rapidly appreciating modern firsts of the past decade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this science fiction? Atwood prefers “speculative fiction” — she insists that everything in the novel has historical precedent. Forced surrogacy, theocratic government, slave names, sumptuary laws — all have existed in human history.
Is the sequel (The Testaments) as good? The Testaments (2019) won the Booker Prize jointly with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other. It is more conventionally plotted and less formally daring than the original, but provides satisfying narrative closure.
What happens to Offred? The novel’s ending is deliberately ambiguous — Offred enters a van that may be taking her to freedom or to execution. The “Historical Notes” epilogue (set two centuries later) confirms that Gilead eventually fell, but Offred’s individual fate remains unknown.