In what year was the novel published?

Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale was published in 1985. The Canadian dystopian novel was first released on April 17, 1985, by McClelland and Stewart.

The book imagines a near-future New England transformed into the Republic of Gilead, a theonomic dictatorship that has overthrown the United States. Its narrator, Offred, is a fertile woman forced to serve as a Handmaid and bear children for a powerful Commander and his Wife.

Atwood drew on historical examples of authoritarianism, religious control, reproductive coercion, and restrictions on women's rights. The novel quickly became a major work of dystopian fiction and helped establish Atwood as one of the most prominent Canadian writers of the late twentieth century.

Readers sometimes confuse the publication date with later adaptations. The 1990 film and the television series came years after the novel. The book was followed by Atwood's sequel, The Testaments, published in 2019, but the original The Handmaid's Tale remains the 1985 novel.