<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 1985 . It is set in a near - future New England, in a totalitarian religious state, resembling Christian theonomy, that has overthrown the United States government . The novel focuses on the journey of the handmaid Offred . Her name derives from the possessive form "of Fred"; handmaids are forbidden to use their birth names and must echo the male, or master, whom they serve . </P> <P> The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in subjugation in a patriarchal society and the various means by which these women attempt to 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>

Is the handmaid's tale set in the future