Reading Order
Handmaid's TaleThe Handmaid's Tale Series Reading Order
Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985) is the first book in a duology, followed by The Testaments (2019). The Handmaid's Tale follows Offred, a handmaid in the theocratic Republic of Gilead — a near-future America where environmental disaster and declining birth rates have led to a totalitarian religious state in which fertile women are assigned to powerful men to bear children. The Testaments won the Booker Prize in 2019 and can be read independently.
Where to start
The Handmaid's Tale
Complete Handmaid's Tale Book List
- 1Buy
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood·1985·Begin here — Offred, a handmaid in the theocratic Republic of Gilead, tells her story; the foundational text of feminist dystopia - 2Buy
The Testaments
Margaret Atwood·2019·Sequel set fifteen years after The Handmaid's Tale — told from three perspectives including Aunt Lydia; Booker Prize winner 2019; can technically be read independently but works best after The Handmaid's Tale
Handmaid's Tale — Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read The Handmaid's Tale before The Testaments?
The Testaments is set fifteen years after The Handmaid's Tale and can be read without having read the first book — it has different protagonists and fills in enough context that it functions independently. However, The Testaments will be more emotionally resonant if you've read The Handmaid's Tale first. If you've only seen the TV series, you know enough to read The Testaments.
Is The Handmaid's Tale based on real events?
Atwood has said that everything in The Handmaid's Tale is based on something that has actually happened — she invented no new forms of oppression but drew on historical precedents from various regimes and time periods, particularly the American Puritan colonies, the theocratic government of Iran after 1979, and Nazi Germany's Lebensborn program for increasing the Aryan birthrate. She has said the question of which historical events she drew on for which elements of Gilead is one she frequently answers for readers.
How does The Handmaid's Tale relate to the Hulu TV series?
The Hulu TV series (2017–present) adapted The Handmaid's Tale for its first season and then continued the story beyond the novel for subsequent seasons. The series follows Offred (Elisabeth Moss) into the future that the novel doesn't show. The Testaments (2019) serves as the canonical sequel to the novel and exists independently of the TV series' invented plotlines.
What is Gilead in The Handmaid's Tale?
Gilead is the theocratic Republic that has replaced the United States after a coup. It is a patriarchal religious dictatorship organized around the premise that women's bodies exist for the reproduction of the state. Women are divided into classes — Wives, Handmaids, Marthas, Econowives, Aunts — each with prescribed dress, roles, and restrictions. Handmaids are fertile women assigned to powerful men to produce children for their households.
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