美国国家公共电台 NPR Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid's Tale' Soars To Top Of Amazon Bestseller List

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

At this point, it's probably safe to call it a trend. Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, "The Handmaid's Tale," is the latest work of classic dystopian fiction to hit the Amazon Bestseller lists since the presidential election. It joins George Orwell's "1984" and Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here." NPR's Petra Mayer reports.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE¹: You might have seen protesters at the women's marches last month holding signs saying things like "The Handmaid's Tale" is not an instruction manual and, make Margaret Atwood fiction again.

"The Handmaid's Tale" depicts² an America collapsed³ into a theocratic⁴ dystopia called Gilead. It's a place where women are brutally⁵ oppressed. They're forbidden to read and forced to bear children for the ruling class. For many readers, that story is suddenly relevant. For Atwood herself, that's a bit of a surprise.

MARGARET ATWOOD: Who know? Let's just put it that way. When I wrote it, who knew?

MAYER: "The Handmaid's Tale" is on top of the Amazon Bestseller lists. That's partly because Hulu has adapted it for TV. The show will debut⁶ in April, and viewers got their first glimpse of Gilead this past weekend during the Super Bowl.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE HANDMAID'S TALE")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: (As character) You girls will serve the leaders and their barren wives.

ATWOOD: At this moment in U.S. history, quite a few people are worried that it's going that way.

MAYER: According to publicist Russell Perreault, "The Handmaid's Tale" has been selling strongly for months.

RUSSELL PERREAULT: In the last year, we've gone up 60 percent. And since the election, it's been 200 percent increase in sales.

MAYER: Perreault is the head of publicity⁷ for Anchor Books, which currently publishes "The Handmaid's Tale."

PERREAULT: Just this year alone, 2017, we've printed 125,000 copies of the book and since last November, 150,000 copies.

MAYER: And if you're wondering, that's a lot of books. Perreault says a lot of those copies are being bought by people who've read the book before.

PERREAULT: Now they're all reading it again, looking from a different view.

MAYER: Atwood says, back when she wrote the book 30 years ago, she got three distinct reactions.

ATWOOD: The English said, jolly good yarn⁸. They obviously we weren't too worried about it (laughter). The Canadians, in their nervous way, said, could it happen here? And the Americans said, how long have we got?

MAYER: But it's not just nervous Americans on the left who are working out their worries on Amazon. As I was writing this story, "The Handmaid's Tale" was sitting at number one. "1984" was number two, and "Dangerous," the upcoming book by alt-right provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos, was at number three. Petra Mayer, NPR News.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

3 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

4 theocratic   

adj.神权的，神权政治的

参考例句：

• The priest caste wields considerable power in this rigidly theocratic society. 祭司阶层(priestcaste)在这个严格的神权社会中掌握着相当大的权力。 来自互联网
• The heartland of Islam, by contrast, is theocratic. 相反，伊斯兰教的核心地带则是神权政治。 来自互联网

5 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

6 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

7 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

8 yarn   

n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事

参考例句：

• I stopped to have a yarn with him.我停下来跟他聊天。
• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。