The Handmaid's Tale

1985 novel by Margaret Atwood
Book literary_work Q1541914
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Summary

The Handmaid's Tale is a literary work[1].

Key Facts

  • Author: Margaret Atwood[2]
  • Award received: Arthur C. Clarke Award[3], NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books[4], Governor General's Award for English-language fiction[5], Los Angeles Times Book Prize[6], Audie Awards[7]
  • Instance of: banned book[8]
  • Publisher: McClelland & Stewart[9]
  • Genre: feminist science fiction[10], social science fiction novel[11], science fiction[12], dystopian fiction[13], historical fiction[14]
  • Follows: Bodily Harm[15]
  • Followed by: Cat's Eye[16], The Testaments[17]
  • Part of the series: The Handmaid's Tale[18]
  • Language of work or name: English[19]
  • Country of origin: Canada[20]
  • Publication date: August 1985[21]
  • Characters: Offred[22], Serena Joy[23]
  • Has edition or translation: The Handmaid's Tale[24]
  • Narrative location: United States[25]
  • Nominated for: Prometheus Award[26], Booker Prize[27], Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel[28], Nebula Award for Best Novel[29]
  • Title: The Handmaid's Tale[30], La Servante écarlate[31], Разказът на прислужницата[32], Příběh služebnice[33], Der Report der Magd[34], El cuento de la criada[35], Sluškinjina priča[36], A szolgálólány meséje[37], Il racconto dell'Ancella[38], O conto da aia[39], Galaad 2195[40], Аповед служанкі[41]
  • Different from: The Handmaiden[42]
  • Last line: Are there any questions?[43]
  • Derivative work: The Handmaid's Tale[44]
  • Copyright status: copyrighted[45]
  • Epigraph: In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones.[46], And when Rachel saw what she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die. And Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel; and he said, Am I in God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb ? And she said, Behold my maid Bilhah, go in unto her, and she shall bear upon my knees, that I may also have children by her[47], But as to myself, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal...[48]
  • Form of creative work: novel[49]

Product Details

The following facts are restated verbatim from public-domain and CC0 open-data sources — every line is independently verifiable against the named source's catalog.

MusicBrainz — CC0 open music encyclopedia

  • Release type: Prose[50]

  • MusicBrainz ID: 60d03dcf-260b-473b-82f6-9ec351cc264a[51]

FAQs

What awards did The Handmaid's Tale receive?

Honors received include Arthur C. Clarke Award[3], NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books[4], Governor General's Award for English-language fiction[5], and Los Angeles Times Book Prize[6].

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [8] ↑ . pen.org. pen.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  2. [2] ↑ . Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  3. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  12. [3] ↑ . clarkeaward.com. clarkeaward.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  13. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [7] ↑ . locusmag.com. Retrieved . locusmag.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  17. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  20. [21] ↑ . Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  21. [22] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  22. [23] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  23. [24] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  24. [25] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  25. [26] ↑ . lfs.org. lfs.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  26. [27] ↑ . thebookerprizes.com. thebookerprizes.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  27. [28] ↑ . sfadb.com. sfadb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  28. [29] ↑ . nebulas.sfwa.org. Retrieved . nebulas.sfwa.org. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  29. [30] ↑ . Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  30. [31] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  31. [32] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  32. [33] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  33. [34] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  34. [35] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  35. [36] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  36. [37] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  37. [38] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  38. [39] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  39. [40] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  40. [41] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  41. [42] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  42. [43] ↑ . washingtonpost.com. washingtonpost.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  43. [44] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  44. [45] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  45. [46] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  46. [47] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  47. [48] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  48. [49] ↑ . Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved . wikidata.org.

Product details (FDA / USDA / NHTSA public-domain catalog data)

  1. [50] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.
  2. [51] ↑ . MusicBrainz (MetaBrainz Foundation). musicbrainz.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

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Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

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BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_the-handmaid-s-tale-q1541914_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{The Handmaid's Tale}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-handmaid-s-tale-q1541914}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-29}}
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Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 21d ago · HedgeHog · 2026-10-11 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Wikipedia languages → ['af', 'ar', 'ast', 'az', 'br', 'ca', 'cs', 'cy', 'da', 'de', 'en', 'eo', 'es',
    Sitelink count → 45
    Bookbrainz work id → f23d22e8-11ba-440a-a990-075152266c21
    Claims rich → —
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Bookbrainz work id: f23d22e8-11ba-440a-a990-075152266c21, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/290269|batch #290269]]"
  2. 12w ago · Mind Booster Noori · 2026-08-05 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Followed by → Cat's Eye, The Testaments
    "/* wbsetclaim-create:2||1 */ Followed by: The Testaments"
  3. 16w ago · Nyuhn · 2026-07-10 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    P14541 → 498ieH
    "/* wbeditentity-update:0| */ QuickStatements 3.0 [[:toollabs:qs-dev/batch/40849|batch #40849]]: ZGBK ID"
  4. 25w ago · KaleemBot bot · 2026-05-07 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Instance of → literary work, banned book
    Genre → feminist science fiction, social science fiction novel, science fiction +2
    Different from → The Handmaiden
    Has edition or translation → Q137849282
    + 27 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbeditentity-update-languages-and-other-short:0||ur */"
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