Flatland

by Edwin Abbott Abbott

English language

Published Nov. 11, 2018 by Standard Ebooks.

(14 reviews)

Flatland is uniquely both a social critique and a primer on multi-dimensional geometry. Written in two parts in 1884 by Edwin A. 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.”

        <p>Edwin A. Abbott wrote other theological fiction and non-fiction (including several biographies), but he is best remembered for <i>Flatland</i>. 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 is based on the second published edition and includes its preface, which in part attempts to address some of the contemporary accusations of misogyny.</p>

57 editions

noisenerd reviewed Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott (Princeton science library)

Contender for "Greatest Book Ever"

5 stars

I'm perhaps being a little over-the-top there, but also not really. The way this book serves as political/societal satire while simultaneously teaching a fairly advanced mathematical concept in an entertaining and accessible way is masterful. The social commentary may be a bit less relevant than it was in its time, but sadly still isn't entirely irrelevant even now, and I think the geometry lesson is still one of the best explanations of the concept I've seen.

NullPotential reviewed Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott

The interesting bits are burried by the boring

3 stars

Firstly it can't be dismissed how prescient a concept the fourth dimension and the importance of time was when this book was penned. The idea would be nothing more than fantasy up until Abbott's final years, when some dude named Einstein wrote a theory. The parts of the book that center around the topic of dimensions and the separations between holds up nearly 1.5 centuries later.

Unfortunately, Abbott goes into great detail on the imagined lives and societies of the creatures in the first and second dimension as a commentary on the Victorian period.