Margaret Atwood is the legendary author behind The Handmaid’s Tale – Dua’s Monthly Read for November for the Service95 Book Club. Set in the theocratic dystopia of Gilead, the novel explores power, gender and resistance in a chilling alternate United States. First published in 1985, it remains profoundly relevant – and deeply unsettling – four decades on. Here, Margaret shares the books and music that helped shape the novel’s world, its structure, and its themes. From totalitarian texts to spirituals of survival, these selections reveal the layered inspirations behind one of the most iconic feminist works of modern literature.
The Bible
“A text that is central to the world of Gilead, from the baby contest between Rachel and Leah in which their ‘handmaids’ (slaves) give birth to babies who are then handed over to them, to the reframed Lord’s Prayer recited by Offred. Note that Gilead rewrites the Bible, and forbids women from reading it – or reading anything.”
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
“A book I read as a young teenager soon after it came out, and which was a major influence on The Handmaid’s Tale – especially the structure of the ending.”
The Palace Of Dreams by Ismail Kadare
“This Albanian novelist was one of the major successors of Orwell and Kafka, and The Palace Of Dreams is a nightmarish portrait of the horrific control – including thought control – exerted by totalitarian regimes, whether of right or of left. Pertinent in our times.”
The American Puritans: Their Prose And Poetry, edited by Perry Miller (1956)
“Miller is one of the two dedicatees of The Handmaid’s Tale. I studied with him in the early 1960s. Note: Puritan New England was not a democracy, but a theocracy. It did not tolerate dissent.”
Beloved by Toni Morrison
“I reviewed this novel for the New York Times in 1987. Baby-stealing and enslavement are central to it, and central also to The Handmaid’s Tale. American slavery was one of the many real-life sources for The Handmaid’s Tale: I put nothing into that book that had not been enacted by humans, sometime, somewhere.”
The Playlist To Soundtrack Your Reading Of The Handmaid’s Tale
This music collection reflects resistance, repression, and survival – themes central to the world of Gilead. Some are historical, some spiritual, and one is even operatic, but all resonate with the emotional and political undercurrents of the novel.
There’s More – Delve Deeper Into The Handmaid’s Tale With The Service95 Book Club...
- WATCH Dua’s interview with Margaret
- DISCOVER what to read next from Margaret’s back catalogue
- READ Dua’s essay on what reading The Handmaid’s Tale taught her about the world
- EXPLORE what The Handmaid’s Tale tells us about women’s rights today
- MEET the costume designer who brought Gilead to life for the screen
