Briscoe, Lee Thompson, Scarlet Letters: Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Toronto: ECW Press, 1997.

This book offers a broad overview of the novel, placing it within a chronology of Atwood’s life and work and discussing its critical reception, before setting out a reading of the text as a whole.

Ingersoll, Earl G., ed. Margaret Atwood: Conversations. Princeton, New Jersey: Ontario Review Press, 1990.

This collection of interviews with Margaret Atwood provides insight into the themes and questions of her writing, in her own words.

McCombs, Judith, ed. Critical Essays on Margaret Atwood. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co., 1988.

Bringing together essays from a range of critical perspectives, this volume provides a useful overview of the way Atwood’s work has been understood and interpreted by critics.

Rao, Eleonora. Strategies for Identity: The Fiction of Margaret Atwood. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1994.

Rao examines in depth the theme of identity in Atwood’s fiction, focusing on questions of gender identity.

Staels, Hilda, Margaret Atwood’s Novels: A Study of Narrative Discourse. Tubingen, Germany: Francke Verlag, 1995.

This study includes a chapter on The Handmaid’s Tale that discusses Offred’s narrative style as a form of political resistance.

Wilson, Sharon Rose. Margaret Atwood’s Fairy-Tale Sexual Politics. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1993.

Wilson’s book examines Atwood’s use of fairy-tale motifs as a way of exploring gender identity and sexual politics.