Margaret Atwood's international celebrity has given a new visibility to Canadian literature in English. This Companion provides a comprehensive critical account of Atwood's writing across the wide range of genres within which she has worked for the past forty years, while paying attention to her Canadian cultural context and the multiple dimensions of her celebrity. The main concern is with Atwood the writer, but there is also Atwood the media star and public performer, cultural critic, environmentalist and human rights spokeswoman, social and political satirist, and mythmaker. This immensely varied profile is addressed in a series of chapters which cover biographical, textual, and contextual issues. The Introduction contains an analysis of dominant trends in Atwood criticism since the 1970s, while the essays by twelve leading international Atwood critics represent the wide range of different perspectives in current Atwood scholarship.

Winner of the Margaret Atwood Society Best Book Award for 2006

'The Cambridge Companion to Margaret Atwood boasts an impressive array of essays by international Atwood scholars.'

Source: Canadian Literature

'it is doubtlessly an example of sound, well-informed and well-written scholarship that consolidates the achievements of several decades of Atwood criticism, as well as a commendable classroom tool.'

Source: Atlantis

'It is an enlightening and pleasurable experience to immerse oneself into this new timely collection on Canada’s 'Queen of Letters', Margaret Atwood.'

Source: The review of English studies

'… a companion of sound and agile mind as well as of engaging demeanour, able to keep pace alongside and offer lively conversation and insights along the way. … The book also profiles new avenues of research.'

Source: University of Toronto Quarterly