<Tr> <Th> Pages </Th> <Td> 311 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> ISBN </Th> <Td> 0 - 7710 - 0813 - 9 </Td> </Tr> <P> The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood . originally published in 1986 . Set in a near - future New England, in a totalitarian, Christian theonomy that has overthrown the United States government . The novel is based around the journey of the handmaid Offred, an emphasis on the possessive form "of Fred," as handmaids are forbidden to use their birth names and must echo the male, or master, for whom they serve . The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in subjugation to misogyny in a patriarchal society and the various means by which these women gain individualism and independence . The novel's title echoes the component parts of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which is a series of connected stories ("The Merchant's Tale", "The Parson's Tale", etc .). </P> <P> The Handmaid's Tale is structured into two parts, night and other various events . This novel can be interpreted as a double narrative, Offred's tale and the Handmaid's tales . The night sections are solely about Offred, and the other sections (shopping, waiting room, household, etc .) are the stories that describe the possible life of every Handmaid, though from the perspective of Offred . In many of these sections, Offred jumps between past and present as she retells the events leading up to the fall of women's rights and the current details of her life which she lives . </P>

When did the handmaid's tale take place