Flatland
A Romance of Many Dimensions
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3.9 • 27 Ratings
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Publisher Description
Flatland is uniquely both a social critique and a primer on multi-dimensional geometry. Written in two parts in 1884 by Edwin Abbott, an English mathematician and theologian, it tells the story of a square living in Flatland: a two-dimensional realm. After a dream of a restrictive one-dimensional existence and the difficulties this poses, he is visited by a sphere from a three-dimensional space who wishes to enlighten him into the ways of “Upward, yet not Northward.”
Edwin Abbott wrote other theological fiction and non-fiction (including several biographies), but he is best remembered for Flatland. While it was mostly forgotten after publication, it received a revived interest from the 1960s onwards, and has more recently had several sequels and film adaptations. This edition of Flatland is based on the second published edition and includes its preface, which in part attempts to address some of the contemporary accusations of misogyny.
Customer Reviews
Classic story of dimensions
A must read for every school kid to aid the visual understanding of dimensional analysis at its core. The sideband social twist is an exceptional bonus.
HIGH 2
The world building is fun and the social aspects make for an interesting read. The idea of the fourth dimension continues to put my brain in a pretzel.
The casual misogyny was weird. I understand that Flatland is not supposed to be a very forward thinking society, but I find it hard to believe this was some sort of satire. The author does take time to describe how the women are powerful as they are capable of piercing and killing the men. However, this quick mention does not outweigh the consistent sexism throughout the entire book. Even if this was the intention, it's executed badly and ultimately unnecessary. It feels much more likely that an author from the 1800's just didn't respect women.
Awesome Victorian Satire
This was awesome. It was mathy and geeky, but it was a pretty fun read. It has often been critiqued for being quite sexist; it was not at all. For the time it was very progressive and quite similar to Oscar Wilde’s plays in direction and intention