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Flatland

by Edwin A. Abbott

3.76 · rating details · 9,085 ratings · 901 reviews

Classic of science (and mathematical) fiction — charmingly illustrated by author — describes the journeys of A. Square and his adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions). A. Square also entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions — a revolutionary idea for which he is banished from Spaceland.

Paperback, 83 pages

Published September 21st 1992 by Dover Publications, Inc. (first published 1884)

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Apr 09, 2011

Stephen rated it

Shelves: classics, easton-press, 1800s, the-worlds-the-thing, science-fiction, classics-european, humor-and-satire

3.0 stars. Satire + Math + Victorian Social Mores + 19th Century Prose + A Little More Satire + Multi-Dimensional Perception + Even More Satire + A Humble, Open-Minded Square as Protagonist = A Classic, English Literature, Science Fiction, Social Satire..….uh, with A Humble Open-Minded Square as Protagonist.
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This is one of those interesting books that sit at the intersection of a number of different genres and so can appeal (or be hated by) a wide number of people. In the case...more

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Apr 15, 2008

X rated it

Recommends it for: literary mathematicians or anyone who wants to ponder the existence of higher dimensions

Recommended to X by: Kathryn

"Flatland" begins by explaining the physical and social structure of Flatland, a two-dimensional world where social status is dependent on the number of angles a figure possesses. The greater the angle and consequently the greater number of sides, the greater the status. Flatland is a surprisingly brutal world, where figures are either incarcerated or executed - depending on their social status - for being irregular or for having knowledge that the ruling class does not want them to k...more

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Mar 02, 2009

rgb rated it

When you read this book, keep two things in mind. First, it was written back in 1880, when relativity had not yet been invented, when quantum theory was not yet discovered, when only a handful of mathematicians had the courage (yet) to challenge Euclid and imagine curved space geometries and geometries with infinite dimensionality. As such, it is an absolutely brilliant work of speculative mathematics deftly hidden in a peculiar but strangely amusing social satire.

Second, its point...moreWhen you read this book, keep two things in mind. First, it was written back in 1880, when relativity had not yet been invented, when quantum theory was not yet discovered, when only a handful of mathematicians had the courage (yet) to challenge Euclid and imagine curved space geometries and geometries with infinite dimensionality. As such, it is an absolutely brilliant work of speculative mathematics deftly hidden in a peculiar but strangely amusing social satire.

Second, its point, even about itself, is still as apropos today as it was then. We still do not really know what the true dimensionality of the Universe is. It seems somehow unlikely that it is just "four", even in terms of spacetime dimensions. String theory talks seriously about thousands of dimensions. Quantum theory implements very seriously infinite numbers of dimensions. And yet we are still stuck in our 3 space dimensions mentally, hardly able to visualize the 4 in which we live "properly" unless we study theoretical physics for a decade or three, and utterly unable to mentally imagine those four embedded in a veritable Hilbert's Grand Hotel of dimensions.

Ultimately, this is a book about keeping an open mind. A really open mind -- avoiding the trap of scientific materialism and the trap of theistic idealism and the trap of any other favorite -ism you might come up with. Our entire visible space-time continuum could be nothing more than a single thin page in an infinitely thick book of similar pages, that book one of an infinite number of similar books on an infinite shelf, that shelf but one such shelf in an infinite bookcase of shelves, that bookcase but one in an infinite library of bookcases, that library but one... but by now you get the idea.

We have a hard time opening our minds up to the enormous range of possibilities, preferring to live our lives mentally trapped in a single tiny period on just one of those pages, in pointland. We may be quite unable to actually perceive the space in which our tiny point is embedded, but our minds are capable of conceiving it, and Abbot's lovely parable is a mind-expanding work to those who choose to read it that way.

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May 16, 2008

Laura rated it

Shelves: fiction

I was dubious starting this, as it's written in a high Victorian style that can be a bit of a slog, and the introduction, which is mercifully short, did not exactly make my heart leap up like an eagle at the thought of continuing. But once I got into the book proper, it turned out to be a delight on a lot of levels -- for example, as a satire of stratified Victorian society (and our own, too); as a commentary on the dangers of bucking conventional wisdom; and on the difficulty of pushing our min...more

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Jul 15, 2011

Samantha rated it

· review of another edition

http://www.libriecaffelatte.com/2011/05/...

I DUE ASPETTI-IDEE DEL LIBRO CHE HO APPREZZATO DI PIU': la Gerarchia Geometrica e le Femmine Filiformi.
La Gerarchia in Flatlandia è in base al numero dei lati del poligono, più lati si ha e più in alto si è. Quindi un triangolo sarà nella classe più bassa mentre un poligono con molti lati e con la forma il più vicino possibile al cerchio sarà addirittura un "privilegiato".
Invece, le femmine sono viste come linee rette ...more

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Jan 03, 2009

Dan rated it

This book should not be read in hopes of finding an entertaining story. As a novel, it's terrible. It's plot (if you can call it that) is simple and contrived. But, it wasn't written as a novel.

Flatland is a mathematical essay, meant to explain a point: that higher dimensions (more than length, depth and width) may be present in our universe, but if they are, it will be nearly impossible for us to understand them.

The story itself consists of a two dimensional world (Fl...more

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Sep 28, 2011

Ttssattsr rated it

· review of another edition

An amusing essay of a life in 2D as written by a square, including gentlemanly summations of society, education and political upheaval-cum-reformation. Forays into the one-dimensional Lineland and the three-dimensional Spaceland further complicate the square's already troublesome perception of the world he typically inhabits, and hint at a greater fourth-dimension above even the 3rd. Exceedingly well written and not wholly out of date considering the year of it's first publication; reading in be...more

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Mar 23, 2011

Russell rated it

This was the direct result of drug overdose. In Psychology, we studied how our consciousness becomes altered by certain things, like sleep, sleep deprivation, drugs, and near-death experiences. I think that the mathematician, Edwin Abbott Abbott, needed sleep, less drugs, and life experiences OUTSIDE of the house because he imagined less-than-exciting characters with lower-than-poop plans. During sleep, we dream, which is an altered consciousness. Now, all of Edwin's dreams, just because he ...more

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Mar 23, 2008

Matthew rated it

For modern readers, the most compelling aspect of Flatland is inevitably the philosophical and theological undertones of the book. It is the story of A. Square, who is the resident of an entirely two dimensional world in which everything exists on a single plane. Flatland, as the narrator names his world, is inhabited various geometrical figures who go about their lives unable to see more than a single straight line. In the course of the book, the narrator is visited by a sphere, who comes from ...more

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Feb 11, 2008

Robert Beveridge rated it

Shelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Flatland is one of those pseudo-scientific novels that has since become a piece of the scientific canon in the same way that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has; when attempting to explain theoretical physics to a class, and at a dead-end, a professor is most liekly to turn to an analogy from Flatland. Which makes sense. Flatland is the story of A. Square, a resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, and how he comes to understand that there are universes in every dimension. Previous to this, th...moreFlatland is one of those pseudo-scientific novels that has since become a piece of the scientific canon in the same way that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has; when attempting to explain theoretical physics to a class, and at a dead-end, a professor is most liekly to turn to an analogy from Flatland. Which makes sense. Flatland is the story of A. Square, a resident of the two-dimensional Flatland, and how he comes to understand that there are universes in every dimension. Previous to this, the idea of any universe but his own two-dimensional universe was unthinkable; by the end of the novel, he is positing the existence of a great, infinitely-dimensional being-- god. This is not surprising; Edwin Abbott was a theologist first and foremost. What is surprising is how modern eyes have seen this tale, and it gives us a perspective on the endless debate as to whether the author's belief about his story is the final and "right" one.

Abbott meant his book as a treatise on theoretical physics-- if at all-- in only a minor way. According to Abbott himself, his main goal in the writing of Flatland was to produce a kind of "satire of manners" on Victorian England. And, given what little I know of the ways of life in Victorian England, he seems to be right on the money. But what do I know? Abbott's assertion is backed up by the structure of the novel, certainly; the first hundred pages of this small (hundred fifty page) tome are devoted to the customs and mores of Flatland. How stinging a criticism they are of the values and mores of Victorian England is not for me to say. Thus, those of us who are not historians are left with the final fifty pages, and the impact of the first hundred pages upon them (which, aside form the knowledge gained therein, is minimal); and, at least as far as the physicists go, the book has metamorphosed into a trestise on theoretical physics.

I'm not a theoretical physicist, either, but I've always been interested in mathematics in a sort of hobbylike way, and the math presented in Flatland is good, solid theory that also happens to be thought-provoking. Seeing how A. Square's realization of how the third dimension works dawns on him, and seeing how Lord Sphere explains the mechanics of the third dimension to A. Square, it is easy to take those arguments and make them to postulate a theoretical fourth dimension (albeit one that is impossible to visualize, at least within the narrow scope of my mathematical knowledge) and its supercubes with sixteen points and eight faces, and the like.

The point is, however, we seem to have taken a minor part of the book's appeal to its original audience and made that its full appeal today. We still think it's good (or it wouldn't still be in print a hundred sixteen years after its release, no?), but we think different aspects of it are good. The opinions of the artist have passed on, and the work itself remains in a different perspective. (less)

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Jan 03, 2008

Teresa rated it

Ha, another one of those bizarre science/math books that I enjoyed reading. In this book the protagonist is a square. Yes, a two dimentional figure with four equal sides and four right angles. This square resides in a place where there are only to dimensions. Class is defined by the number of sides a figure contains. The more sides one has the closer it gets to a circle, which is considered to be the highest member of Flatland Society.
What I find hilarious about this novel is that women a...more

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Sep 11, 2007

Jarrodtrainque added it

Unless you're a mathematician, the chances of you reading any novels about geometry are probably slender. But if you read only two in your life, these are the ones. Taken together, they form a couple of accessible and charming explanations of geometry and physics for the curious non-mathematician. Flatland, which is also available under separate cover, was published in 1880 and imagines a two-dimensional world inhabited by sentient geometric shapes who think their planar world is all there is. B...more

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Jul 13, 2007

Beguine rated it

· review of another edition

A quietly whacky, thoroughly odd book that's two parts geometry, two parts satire/social commentary, and one part story. It's a what-if story, a kind of proto hard science fiction, that details the lives and customs of a group of two dimensional figures wherein middle class pentagons try to make matches that will produce children with more sides and less acute angels, women are lines and almost wholly the chattel of their husbands (though chattel that must be appeased as they can kill with a tou...more

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Feb 13, 2009

Kathleen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: math-science, fiction

This book is about math in the same way that Anna Karenina is about a train. Yes, it is written from the first person point of view of a square. The fact that the angles of a polygon's vertexes determine his place in the class structure makes the story no less a criticism of the social divisions of Abbot's day.

Abbot uses the mathematical metaphor of dimension to berate his society for a very limited worldview. In doing this he, as so many great minds before him, used math to illus...more

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Jan 02, 2009

julie added it

Recommended to julie by: Mrs. LuAnn Blackman

The Summer Reading book assigned for 9th grade Geometry, to be read the summer prior. Most BORING book I'd ever read since I tried to muttle through Lassie Comes Home for 7th grade Reading Class(another req'd summer reading assignment). I could appreciate Abbott's remarkably creative expression of the material: a whimsical story incorporating geometry through a plotline and through an abstract, mathematically sound setting. I wished desperately that I could visualize the story--I struggled great...more

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Nov 02, 2011

Darryl Sloan rated it

Imagine a world of only two dimensions: length and breadth, but no height. Imagine sentient beings living in this world. Everything appears as a horizontal straight line, like looking at coin on table, keeping your eye level with the edge of the table. Now imagine that a sentient sphere, gazing at this Flatland from above, decides to venture down and communicate with a square. From his vantage point, he can see everything. The walls of Flatland are no barrier to his all-seeing gaze. He speaks to...moreImagine a world of only two dimensions: length and breadth, but no height. Imagine sentient beings living in this world. Everything appears as a horizontal straight line, like looking at coin on table, keeping your eye level with the edge of the table. Now imagine that a sentient sphere, gazing at this Flatland from above, decides to venture down and communicate with a square. From his vantage point, he can see everything. The walls of Flatland are no barrier to his all-seeing gaze. He speaks to the square, but the square cannot see him, so he physically descends into Flatland. As his girth intersects with the dimension, he appears to the square as a circle which widens as he descends. The poor square has never seen anything like this, and believes that he is experiencing a paranormal visitation. Things become even more alarming for the square when the sphere pulls him up into Spaceland. But the sphere is shortly in for a suprise when the square questions him about the logical possibility of a fourth dimension of which the sphere is not privy, just as the square was not privy to the third.

Now, you either love this sort of a mindfuck or you don't. I'm a great believer (for philosophical reasons that I won't go into just now) that there is more to the universe than material reality. This charming fiction provides a mathematical basis for such a notion. It behoves us to try and conceptualise a fouth dimension which sees into the third in much the same way that the third can see into the second. It's impossible to wrap your head around, just as in the story it's impossible for the square, once returned to Flatland, to describe his experience to his companions, or even to accurately remember it. I'm someone who has an appreciation for things of a magical or psychic nature, so I know that there's something to the idea that Abbott presents, although I would hasten to add that his presentation is an approximation, not a factual description, of a higher reality than the physical dimension.

Concurrent with a discourse on dimensionality, the story also provides a satirical commentary on social customs of the Victorian era in which it was written, especially as it concerns the abuses of religious authority in preventing the free speech of those who think different. Although this book is classified as fiction, because it is first and foremost a story, I believe that a reader seeking entertainment will find much less pleasure in it than the philosopher-at-heart. To the latter, I thoroughly recommend this little volume.(less)

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Oct 12, 2011

Scott Smith rated it

What a bizarre book...It's the story of a pious and scholarly square (he literally is a square) living in Flatland, a two-dimensional space. He explains a lot about life in Flatland, about the social structure of all the shapes living together, etc. He thinks all space is two-dimensions, and visits Lineland, where all the people are lines living in one-dimensional space and cannot conceive of a second dimension, and Pointland, where all inhabitants have conception of any dimensions, and thus c...more

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Sep 15, 2011

Andy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, illustrated

I found out about Flatland after Sheldon mentioned it during an episode of The Big Bang Theory. Proof that TV can educate! So I picked up a copy at the wonderful (and recently relocated post earthquake) Scorpio Books while on a short trip to Christchurch for an interview a few weeks ago. They always have a huge and varied selection of Penguin Classics, much to my delight.

Flatland, published in 1884, is part mathematical essay, part instruction in geometry, part introduction to imagi...more

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Aug 07, 2011

Joseph rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: on-my-e-reader

Like an atheist devouring C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions offers vital sustenance to the normal diet of any English major.

From a geometric rather than moralistic perspective, Edwin Abbott Abbott presents readers with a familiar world from an unfamiliar perspective. And these other perspectives are not merely the stuff of religious mythology or the imaginations of the insane. They are, rather, the heart of what makes Homo sapiens human or, one ...more

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Jul 27, 2011

Michael Johnston rated it

What an amazing book! Written in 1884 by school master Edwin Abbot it is either a commentary about the social structure of Victorian England or a treatise on geometry (or both).

It is a very short novelette (I finished it in about 4 hours), but it was nearly impossible to put down. For a book whose main character is a square in a two dimensional world, that is an amazing statement.

It is obvious social commentary. The society created in the universe of Flatland is both intricate and highly hi...moreWhat an amazing book! Written in 1884 by school master Edwin Abbot it is either a commentary about the social structure of Victorian England or a treatise on geometry (or both).

It is a very short novelette (I finished it in about 4 hours), but it was nearly impossible to put down. For a book whose main character is a square in a two dimensional world, that is an amazing statement.

It is obvious social commentary. The society created in the universe of Flatland is both intricate and highly hierarchical. From the reader's perspective there is both obvious injustice in this society and a modest reflection of truth even in our own modern world. Yet this is not what most intrigued me about the book.

Most powerful for me was the book's message about the ability to find truth in looking at our social condition from entirely new perspectives. The main character lives in Flatland, a world of only two dimensions. Our hero the square who (like all Flatlanders) can only conceive of the universe in two dimensions and is not even aware of the limitations of his universe. Then one day he is visited by a being from Spaceland (a world with three dimensions). This three dimensional being opens the eyes of the square to the truth of thinking in terms of depth in addition to height and length. An entirely new reality is thus introduced to the square.

Since we spend so much of our time trying to solve the greatest social ills, the book made me wonder whether our efforts to solve these problems is limited by our ability to think beyond the universe we have built for ourselves.

I suspect that the author did not intend for the book to be interpreted this way, but I found great inspiration to look at the world differently. To try to engage more regularly in a search for the truth by stepping away from the standard assumptions upon which our society is built and looking at challenges and realities through the lens of a different "dimension".

It's only going to take you a few hours to read, but if you approach the book from this perspective it may open yours eyes to new things.(less)

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Jul 26, 2011

Juushika rated it

Shelves: borrowed

A square living in a two-dimensional plane explains his ingenious world, and his revelatory introduction to lands of fewer—and more—dimensions. I have fond memories of reading this book as a child, but this was my first time revisiting it since then—and it was quite an experience. What I remembered best is a brillaint, unique concept, and that's still there: there's nothing else out there like Flatland, a world that appears utterly alien but is in fact too well-realized to be unfamiliar. It's in...moreA square living in a two-dimensional plane explains his ingenious world, and his revelatory introduction to lands of fewer—and more—dimensions. I have fond memories of reading this book as a child, but this was my first time revisiting it since then—and it was quite an experience. What I remembered best is a brillaint, unique concept, and that's still there: there's nothing else out there like Flatland, a world that appears utterly alien but is in fact too well-realized to be unfamiliar. It's ingenious, and a delight to rediscover. Yet this slim volume offers more than that idea alone. About half the book is given over to infuriating social satire, which I'd forgotten about completely. The satire isn't always obvious as such: Flatland's society has an extreme view of the misogyny, classicism, and essentialism present in our own (and particularly in Abbott's Victorian era), but the sad truth is that it's not a grand exaggeration—and it's presented so blandly that it reads more like an unfortunate relic of prejudice than any sort of social commentary. As such, I worry that the satire may go over the heads of younger readers (I can't remember if it went over mine) and would be taken at face value; regardless, it feels almost out of place—not that it doesn't have moments of keen, even painful, insight, but it is quite disparate from the fascinating physics lesson that fills the rest of the book.

To wit, the other half of the book is a novel exploration of dimension, verifying and exploring the existence of four or more dimensions by exploring two and fewer. It may not render comprehensible the incomprehensible, but it's a strong argument for some sort of world greater than the one we know. Meanwhile, the dimensions explored by our narrator the square are fascinating. Abbott succeeds by taking his concept to its furthest extent: the lines and shapes have unusual societies which are greatly influenced by the nature and limitations of their worlds, surprisingly simple diagrams help the reader to enter these unusual lands himself, and Abbott often anticipates—and then answers—the questions and doubts that surround his strange ideas. He takes what seems to be a pure mathematical novelty and renders it from a dynamic, convincing first-person perspective—and while it remains just one imaginative interpretation of the issue at hand, it's a brilliant one and a great read. Abbott's voice can tend towards stilted and dated, but Flatland's combination of breadth and brevity nonetheless make it compelling. This may not be precisely the book that I remember, but it provides what I loved and remembered best: something ingenious and brilliantly realized, something intriguing and delightful and thought-provoking. I take more issue with Flatland now than I did then, but I find it fascinating above all and so recommend it despite lingering reservations.(less)

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Jul 06, 2011

Miriam rated it

Shelves: philosophical, literary

Fascinating, reminded me of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Great insight into True Believers, also, and how people react when their worldview is challenged. Poor little square that lives in a two-dimensional world has an experience in the third dimension, sees the truth of our natures, and is unable to relay his experiences to his fellow two-dimensional inhabitants, because the third dimension is not visible, can only be inferred. Ultimately he is unsuccessful and imprisoned for knowing the truth...moreFascinating, reminded me of Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Great insight into True Believers, also, and how people react when their worldview is challenged. Poor little square that lives in a two-dimensional world has an experience in the third dimension, sees the truth of our natures, and is unable to relay his experiences to his fellow two-dimensional inhabitants, because the third dimension is not visible, can only be inferred. Ultimately he is unsuccessful and imprisoned for knowing the truth, and being unable to let it go. He could be a parallel to scientists, or to great religious visionaries, equally — because there is no evidence for his claims, at least to his peers. Wow.

Also interesting is the flatlanders' devotion to very traditional, antiquated, borderline offensive mores. Women are ignorant, docile, and uneducated; men must stay in the station they are born into, and only their offspring have a chance at a higher class (those that are, are taken away from their inferior parents); the highest classes control government and education for the masses. Abhorrent to enlightened us in "spaceland" — right?

Wow. what an allegory!

Notable quotes:
"Yet mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy." (Sphere to square, regarding the lowly point)

"Its own Thought coming to Itself, suggestive of Its disparagement, thereby to enhance Its happiness!" (Point to self, not recognizing that the cruel words spoken by the Square were coming from outside the point's own universe. Great illustration of the true believer's thought acrobatics.)

"Prometheus up in Spaceland was bound for bringing down fire for mortals, but I -- poor Flatland Prometheus -- lie here in prison for bringing down nothing to my countrymen." (What was the point of his journey, his glimpse of the True nature of things? He is viewed as a crazy person, preacher of apostacy, and even his own memories of the things he saw fade over time and distance, with no one to share his certainty.)(less)

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Jun 29, 2011

Mary added it · review of another edition

A proselytizing Square in Flatland is called mad when he tries to describe the 3rd dimension.
He dedicates his book:
"To
"The Inhabitants of SPACE IN GENERAL
"And H. C. IN PARTICULAR
"This Work is Dedicated
"By a Humble Native of Flatland
"In the Hope that
"Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries
"Of THREE Dimensions
"Having been previously conversant
"With ONLY TWO
"So the Citi...more

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May 12, 2011

John rated it

Recommended to John by: Carl Sagan

I wanted to read this book because Carl Sagan mentioned it in his series Cosmos. The book describes how different dimensions are perceived and how difficult it would be to explain the experience of higher dimensions.

The book was misogynistic, a fact poorly addressed in the prefix to the second, revised edition. Flatland is a social commentary. The story covers not only the concepts of different dimensions but ridicules social status based on "good breeding." Elites keep p...more

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Apr 19, 2011

Neeraja S rated it

A classic that needs no introduction. I have seen this book on our bookshelf for as long as I can remember and yet I never ventured into even turning a page, for I had seen this book in the hands of intellectuals, of mathematics geniuses and heard them talk about a new abstract dimension in mathematics. Me and mathematics, and that too abstract, never go together in a positive sentence. And naturally I shied away from the book as long as I could. But I'm glad that I finally "faced my fears"...moreA classic that needs no introduction. I have seen this book on our bookshelf for as long as I can remember and yet I never ventured into even turning a page, for I had seen this book in the hands of intellectuals, of mathematics geniuses and heard them talk about a new abstract dimension in mathematics. Me and mathematics, and that too abstract, never go together in a positive sentence. And naturally I shied away from the book as long as I could. But I'm glad that I finally "faced my fears" by not only reading this book but also marveling at how simple it now seems to try and conceive of another geometric dimension and perhaps many more.

Imagine a land of two dimensions, a world existing inside a geometry book, where triangles, lines, squares and other polygons have a life, a personality, intricate social structures, legislatures and laws...all within the constraints of their two-dimensional flatland. Ha! how bizarre does it seem to us, elevated people of the third dimension. How silly that there could be a degradable world in mere 2 dimensions and how amusing to read about utterly ignorant and pompous flat shapes who assume that their world is the only one to exist and that space beyond 2 dimensions is pure gibberish! The smirk on the faces of 3 dimensional-creatures soon gets wiped away with a mere question - what if you were ignorant of a fourth dimension? How silly would us 3 Dimensional know-it-alls appear to a more intricate creature looking down upon us from a greater dimension and witness all our hullabaloo over a small speck of space?

This reminded me of Plato's allegory of the Cavemen, in his Republic. Plato claimed that what we humans perceive are mere shadows on the walls of the deep caves inside which we reside. Seldom do one of us climb out of the cave to see the sun and the beautiful land beyond the caves, whose mere shadows are the ones we perceive as being real. Yet a person who comes back from such a land of "true shapes" gets ridiculed at, due to pitiable ignorance and tight walls of brick built around one's sense of reason, power of thoughts and imaginations.

The author with his tickling style of satire casually brings out the plausible notion of further dimensions with his charming tale of a frustrated Square trying to grapple with the truth he witnessed in another dimension and faltering at conveying what he witnessed, to his closed minded fellow men. The cruel fate of innovators and thinkers, starting from Copernicus. Since the book is more than a 100 years old, the author's depiction of the social system in the land of 2 dimensions reflects the common norms of society and culture that existed in most parts of the world then (on reflection we can still see remnants of those social structures even in today's contemporary societies).

The descriptions and narrations of the inhabitants of the land of 2D really appealed to the child in me. If I had read this years before, I would have easily gotten distracted, fantasizing about the squares and triangles every time I opened my geometry textbook. I'm probably the only loony who does this, but when I was little I associated each alphabet to a personality of their own, living in their land of English. Somehow the shapes of the letters (and probably the phonetics of some of the words which begin with them) paint a general impression of their personality. The letter "A" for example is an arrogant intellectual, B is the henpecked husband of C, who is an incorrigible spendthrift...and A-H forms one family of the upper class, with I-S forming the middle class etc. I used to have a similar imagination with vegetables and fruits, but that could be the influence of cartoons! But to read about personalities and characteristics of Isosceles, Circles and their little houses, in a "grown-up" book dealing with math-fiction, was just so refreshing to the imagination! And to see it all being strung into a significantly intense concept is like watching Mickey Mouse explain the theory of relativity and me understanding it! How much more creative can an abstract book get? :)
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Apr 18, 2011

Diego Castañeda rated it

· review of another edition

Flatland es un gran libro que tristemente no es muy conocido por su naturaleza "matemática" si bien se mantiene como un gran clásico y aun es leído por matemáticos y físicos debería ser considerado por una audiencia mas general.

La historia es una especie de metáfora sobre la sociedad del siglo XIX particularmente la sociedad de la era victoriana en Inglaterra, aunque un conserva valides en su retrato de algunas casetas de la sociedad contemporánea, si bien es una sátira es ...more

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Feb 04, 2011

Renae rated it

Shelves: 2011

I think a lot of the geometric aspects of this might have been a bit above my head, but I certainly enjoyed the commentary on the treatment of women and the suppressing of the lower classes.

Using a flat geometric plan as a basis for a satire on society is certainly ingenious, especially since the novella also serves as an explanation in dimension. I found the comparing of women as 'lines' that are pointy who have to run around warning people so they don't accidentally kill people to ...more

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Jun 06, 2010

Ruth rated it

Shelves: fiction

160 pages. Donated 2010-01.

"How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? Edwin A. Abbott's droll 'romance of many dimensions' explores this conundrum in the experiences of his protagonist, A Square, whose linear world is invaded by an emissary Sphere bringing the gospel of the third dimension on the eve of the new millennium. Part geometry lesson, part social satire, this classic work of science fiction brilliantly succeeds in enlar...more

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Nov 15, 2009

Amanda B. added it

Shelves: advisorybooks-2009-10

This book was given to me, I believe it was, my sophomore year. We watched a video in math, this year, and it was supposedly based on this book. I am not too much of a math lover, but I thought maybe I could give this book a shot.

Flatland is about a square questioning society about a society with no dimensions, one dimension and three dimensions. That aspect of the main character is similar to myself in the sense that I also question many things in society, like non-violence. I try t...more

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Oct 20, 2009

Eric rated it

Some Favorite lines:
p.109. Regarding the King of Pointland, the Sphere states ...to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.
p.20. It is only now and then in some very remote and backward agricultural district that an antiquarian may still discover a square house.
p.43. ...but imagine that your Tradesman drags behind his regular and respectable vertex, a parallelogram of twelve or thirteen inches in diagon...more

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About Edwin A. Abbott

From Biography Base:

Edwin Abbott Abbott (December 20, 1838 - 1926), English schoolmaster and theologian, is best known as the author of the mathematical satire Flatland (1884).

He was educated at the City of London School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honours in classics, mathematics and theology, and became fellow of his college. In 1862 he ...more

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“Upward, not Northward” — 8 people liked it

“...learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy..” — 6 people liked it

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