The Beehive

A lost classic of feminist dystopian fiction, the forerunner to The Handmaid's Tale, back in print at last

After an economic collapse, the dictator Gorston has risen to power by blaming women for taking men's jobs. In Gorston's new society, girls are assigned at age ten either to become dutiful wives and mothers or do menial work men refuse to do. These women workers are the 'Grey Ones,' brainwashed into accepting their servile state, forced to wear their clothes and hair grey and forbidden to interact with men. But one of the Grey Ones, Hillard, has determined to fight back. She has recruited an underground army of women ready to rise up and overthrow Gorston, but first she will have to contend with his ruthless head of secret police, Steiner, who is determined to root out the conspiracy and crush it at any cost . . .

The only novel by Margaret O'Donnell (1932-2019), who helped lead the movement to legalize contraception in Ireland, The Beehive (1980) shares common themes and plot elements with Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which came out five years later. Largely overlooked on its initial publication, it deserves reconsideration as a classic of modern dystopian fiction.