The Handmaid's Tale was first published in hardback in 1985 in Canada by McClelland and Stewart, Toronto. The following year it was published in hardback in Britain and the United States by Jonathan Cape, London, and Houghton Mifflin, Boston. Published in paperback in Britain by Virago Press Ltd, London, in 1987, it has been regularly reprinted. The edition used in the preparation of this Note is the currently available Vintage paperback, the pagination of which is identical with former Virago editions. There are several other paperback editions published in Canada and the United States