The Handmaid's Tale: Book vs. Series
Bruce Miller’s The Handmaid’s Tale began on Hulu in 2017, adapting Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel. A woman separated from her family is forced to serve in a ruling household under the regime of Gilead.
From Books Adapted
Which books each season covers
Most of the series takes place after the novel's main story
Season 1 reaches the end of Offred's main account in the book. The five seasons after it continue her story, expanding places and lives the novel only briefly describes.
| Season | Book and coverage |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Handmaid's Tale, with additions and changes, through the end of Offred's main narrative. |
| 2 | New story past the book, opening up the Colonies and life in Canada. |
| 3 | New story, past the book. |
| 4 | New story, past the book. |
| 5 | New story, past the book. |
| 6 | New story, past the book. The final season. |
| A guide, not an exact match: shows move scenes and storylines between books and seasons. | |
The novel ends with “Historical Notes,” a lecture set long after Gilead; the series doesn't stage it. Atwood's later book The Testaments has a separate series adaptation of that name, rather than another season of The Handmaid's Tale.
What changed from the book
Serena Joy is younger in the series
The series makes both Serena Joy and the Commander younger than their book counterparts. Serena's age changes her position in the household: she is still of an age to want to carry a child herself.
Bruce Miller said he wanted Serena and Offred in more direct competition. In the book, Serena is an older woman watching another woman take a role she can no longer fill.
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The series confirms a name the book leaves uncertain
The series explicitly identifies Offred as June. The first book never confirms her birth name. June is one of the names the women whisper to each other at the Red Center, which led readers to suggest it belonged to the narrator.
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The final scene returns to Offred's room in the book
In the series finale, June begins recording her story. Her description of the room repeats an early passage in Atwood's novel, including “A chair, a table, a lamp.”
Co-showrunner Yahlin Chang said Bruce Miller had planned the recording scene for years. The pilot also contains a tape-recorder click, connecting the first episode to the account June finally starts to tell.
About the book and the series
- Author
- Margaret Atwood
- Year
- 1985
- Pages
- 336Buy book
- Audiobook length
- 12 hr 6 minGet audiobook
- Narrator
- Claire Danes, full cast, Margaret Atwood, Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Series
- The Handmaid's Tale, book 1
Offred serves in a Commander’s household in Gilead, where a religious regime has stripped women of their rights and assigns fertile women to bear children for its ruling families. Her account moves between the restrictions of her present life and memories of her husband and daughter, as forbidden encounters offer uncertain possibilities for resistance or escape.
- Creator
- Bruce Miller
- Writer
- Bruce Miller
- Year
- 2017–2025
- Episode
- 52 minWatch on Amazon
- Seasons
- 6
- Episodes
- 66
- Network
- Hulu
- Cast
- Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, Ann Dowd, Max Minghella
- Genre
- Drama, dystopian fiction, LGBT-related, post-apocalyptic
- IMDb
- View on IMDb
June is separated from her family and forced into reproductive servitude after a theocratic takeover of the United States. Assigned to the Waterford household, she must judge which gestures of sympathy can be trusted as she seeks news of her daughter and becomes involved in resistance to the regime that has renamed her Offred.
Other adaptations of this book
- 1
The Handmaid's TaleMovie · 1990Details
- Director
- Volker Schlöndorff
- Writer
- Harold Pinter
- Year
- 1990
- Runtime
- 1 hr 48 min
- Cast
- Natasha Richardson, Faye Dunaway, Aidan Quinn, Elizabeth McGovern
Captured while trying to flee Gilead with her family, Kate is renamed Offred and assigned to bear a child for a senior official and his wife. The household subjects her to competing demands, some of them forbidden by the regime itself. Her growing attachment to its driver, Nick, offers intimacy in a life where even private choices are dangerous.
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