Fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale, the regime of Gilead is narrated through the interwoven testimonies of Aunt Lydia, who keeps a secret manuscript hidden inside a hollowed-out copy of Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua in the Ardua Hall archive, and two younger women, Agnes and Daisy, whose paths converge toward the regime's downfall.
Books mentioned in The Testaments (13)
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman: Epigraph: "OBERSTURMBANNFUHRER LISS TO OLD BOLSHEVIK MOSTOVSKOY, VASILY GROSSMAN, LIFE AND FATE"
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin: Epigraph: "Freedom is a heavy load..." —URSULA K. LE GUIN, THE TOMBS OF ATUAN
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot: Epigraph: "Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives..." —GEORGE ELIOT, DANIEL DERONDA
Apologia Pro Vita Sua by John Henry Newman: “I took my nascent manuscript out of its hiding place, a hollow rectangle cut inside one of our X-rated books: Cardinal Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua: A Defence of One's Life.”
Aesop's Fables by Aesop: “As a child I'd read a book called Aesop's Fables. I'd got it from the school library... In this book was a story I have often meditated upon.”
Inferno by Dante Alighieri: “He has several highly valuable editions that I envy: Dore's Inferno, Dali's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Picasso's Lysistrata.”
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: “He has several highly valuable editions that I envy: Dore's Inferno, Dali's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Picasso's Lysistrata.”
Lysistrata by Aristophanes: “He has several highly valuable editions that I envy: Dore's Inferno, Dali's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Picasso's Lysistrata.”
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë: “On my private shelves I've arranged my personal selection of proscribed books... Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Paradise Lost, Lives of Girls and Women—what a moral panic each one of them would cause if set loose among the Supplicants!”
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy: “On my private shelves I've arranged my personal selection of proscribed books... Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Paradise Lost, Lives of Girls and Women”
Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy: “On my private shelves I've arranged my personal selection of proscribed books... Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Paradise Lost, Lives of Girls and Women”
Paradise Lost by John Milton: “On my private shelves I've arranged my personal selection of proscribed books... Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Paradise Lost, Lives of Girls and Women”
Lives of Girls and Women by Alice Munro: “On my private shelves I've arranged my personal selection of proscribed books... Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Paradise Lost, Lives of Girls and Women”