Atwood, Margaret (1986) ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, UK signed first edition

Maragret Atwood (1986) ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ UK first edition, first printing, signed by Atwood on the title page. The seminal ‘Republic of Gilead’ story which was shortlsited for the Booker Prize in 1986 and won it in 2019 respectively.

Provenance: signed to us in person at the Southbank Centre in London on 13 October 2019, the night before the 2019 Booker Prize winner was announced. The event ticket is loosely laid in.

Condition: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ displays the usual toning to the page block edges commensurate with age. Very light shelf wear and the top of the spine is slightly pushed. No scribbles, no bookplates, no stamps in any of the books. A wonderful set.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award, was shortlisted for the 1986 Booker Prize, but the judges awarded it to ‘The Old Devils’ by Kinglsey Amis – one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the prize (no offense to Amis fans). Back then most of the ‘literary circle’ was quite snobbish about ‘genre’ fiction and anything like dystopian sci-fi or ‘speculative fiction’ – Atwood’s prefers this term as averything in the novel has happened already or could happen now – had a hard time competing against ‘serious literature’. Fortunately, the passage of time has elevated ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ to a landmark novel which is read worldwide, and which has been adapted as a film (1990), opera, various plays and a successful recent TV-series. The charismatic handmaidens’ dress has also become a symbol for feminists and women rights advocates permeating politics. ‘The Testaments’ (2019), the long-awaited sequel, won the Booker Prize in 2019 sharing it with Bernadine Evaristo’s ‘Girl, Woman, Other’.