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Sign up todayFlatland
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Learn moreWith this satirical novella, English schoolmaster Edwin A. Abbott provides both a mathematical fantasy and pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. The narrator, A. Square, resides in the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland. When he is visited by a sphere, he is suddenly faced with proof of the existence of three dimensions and is forced to see the limitations of his world.
In a foreword to one of the many publications of this novella, noted science writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as “the best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions.” As such, this novella is still popular among mathematics, physics, and computer science students.
Edwin A. Abbott (1838–1926) has been ranked as one of the leading scholars and theologians of the Victorian era. He received highest honors in mathematics, classics, and theology at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and in 1862 began a brilliant career, during which he served as schoolmaster of some of England’s outstanding schools. At the same time he distinguished himself as a scholar, and in 1889 he retired to his studies. Although Flatland, a literary jeu d’esprit, has given pleasure to thousands of readers over many generations, Abbott is best known for his scholarly works, especially his Shakespearian Grammar and his life of Francis Bacon, and for a number of theological discussions.
Robin Field is the AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator of numerous audiobooks, as well as an award-winning actor, singer, writer, and lyricist whose career has spanned six decades. He has starred on and off Broadway, headlined at Carnegie Hall, authored numerous musical reviews, and hosted or performed on a number of television and radio programs over the years.
Reviews
“With so much wit and grace of style is this clever satire on the limits of our knowledge wrought out that we shall not be surprised to see it take a permanent place in literature.”
“[An] attractive little book…It throws a light on the question of the nature of space, which will be eagerly welcomed by seekers after a Fourth Dimension; and it proves that the institutions and failings of the race which inhabits the strangest countries bear a curiously perverted resemblance to those of our own.”
“This pre-Einstein geometrical fantasy is one of the best things of its kind that has ever been written, for it is more than an ingeniously sustained fantasy: it is a social satire, with wit as sharp as the sub-lustrous end of a Flatland woman; it is an easy philosophical introduction to the fourth dimension; and it is a rebuke to everyone who holds that there is no reality beyond what is perceptible by human senses.”
“Flatland is one of the very few novels about math and philosophy that can appeal to almost any layperson…The book is also quite a funny satire on society and class distinctions of Victorian England.”
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