The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood [0]
Margaret Atwood
Table of Contents
Title Page
Table of Contents
...
Copyright
Epigraphy
Dedication
Contents
I. Night
1
II. Shopping
2
3
4
5
6
III. Night
7
IV. Waiting Room
8
9
10
11
12
V. Nap
13
VI. Household
14
15
16
17
VII. Night
18
VIII. Birth Day
19
20
21
22
23
IX. Night
24
X. Soul Scrolls
25
26
27
28
29
XI. Night
30
XII. Jezebel's
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
XIII. Night
40
XIV. Salvaging
41
42
43
44
45
XV. Night
46
Historical Notes
Historical Notes on The Handmaid's Tale
About the Author
HOUGHTON
MIFFLIN
COMPANY
BOSTON
Copyright © 1986 by O. W. Toad, Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval system, except as may
be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in
writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should
be addressed in writing to Houghton Mifflin Company,
2 Park Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02108.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, date.
The handmaid's tale.
I. Title.
PR9199.3.A8H3 1986 813'.54 85-21944
ISBN 0-395-40425-8
Printed in the United States of America
V 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living
or dead is purely coincidental.
Lines from "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley © 1956 Tree
Publishing Company, Inc. c/o Dunbar Music Canada Ltd. Reprinted
by permission.
The author would like to thank the D.A.A.D. in West Berlin
and the English department at the University of Alabama,
Tuscaloosa, for providing time and space.
And when Rachel saw that 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.
— Genesis 30:1–3
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...
— Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
In the desert there is no sign that says, Thou shalt not eat stones.
— Sufi proverb
For
Mary Webster and Perry Miller
Contents
I Night [>]
II Shopping [>]
III Night [>]
IV Waiting Room [>]
V Nap [>]
VI Household [>]
VII Night [>]
VIII Birth Day [>]
IX Night [>]
X Soul Scrolls [>]
XI Night [>]
XII Jezebel's [>]
XIIINight [>]
XIV Salvaging [>]
XV Night [>]
Historical Notes [>]
I. Night
1
We slept in what had once been the gymnasium. The floor was of varnished wood, with stripes and circles painted on it, for the games that were formerly played there; the hoops for the basketball nets were still in place, though the nets were gone. A balcony ran around the room, for the spectators, and I thought I could smell, faintly like an afterimage, the pungent scent of sweat, shot through with the sweet taint of chewing gum and perfume from the watching girls, felt-skirted as I knew from pictures, later in miniskirts, then pants, then in one earring, spiky green-streaked hair. Dances would have been held there; the music lingered, a palimpsest of unheard sound, style upon style, an undercurrent of drums, a forlorn wail, garlands made of tissue-paper flowers, cardboard devils, a revolving ball of mirrors, powdering the dancers with a snow of light.
There was old sex in the room and loneliness, and expectation, of something without a shape or name. I remember that yearning, for something that was always about to happen and was never the same as the hands that were on us there and then, in the small of the back, or out back, in the parking lot, or in the television room with the sound turned down and only the pictures flickering over