Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Oxford World's Classics) Book

How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? Well, that is the question that Edwin A. Abbott sets out to answer in Flatland, his delightful "romance of many dimensions".

Flatland is a two-dimensional world occupied by geometric figures. Women are simple line-segments, while men are regular polygons with various numbers of sides. The hero of the book is A. Square, a regular square and upper-crust member of the social caste of gentlemen and professionals. Square has a dream in which he visits a one-dimensional world [known as Lineland] which is inhabited by "lustrous points" and attempts to convince the realm's ignorant monarch about the existence of a second dimension. Square is then visited by a three-dimensional sphere, a concept that he cannot quite grasp until he visits Spaceland for himself.

The Sphere reveals that it visits Flatland at the start of each new millennium to introduce a new apostle to the idea of a third dimension in the hopes of eventually educating the whole population of Flatland about Spaceland. The Spacelanders have observed that the government of Flatland are aware of the existence of a third dimension but that they are suppressing the information and silencing anyone preaching openly about it. Square must therefore convince his people of the existence of the third-dimension whilst at the same time struggling to convince the seemingly enlightened Sphere of the possibility of a fourth [and fifth, sixth, etc] dimension.

Flatland is an extraordinary and illuminating book. Abbott uses the fictional world of Flatland to offer pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture and the folly of any society that enforces rigid class divides. Social ascent in the main aspiration of every Flatlander but, although it is apparently granted to everyone, this social mobility is in fact strictly controlled by the few who top the social hierarchy. Abbott seeks to expose the folly of social prejudice, of two-dimension opinions in fact. While this social satire is excellent, Flatland's most enduring contribution to the world of literature is its examination of dimensions, with Isaac Asimov having gone so far as to describe it as "the best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions."

This new OUP edition of Flatland illuminates the social and intellectual context that produced the work as well as the timeless questions that it raises about the limits of our perception and knowledge. It includes an Introduction, Textual Note, Bibliography, Chronology, and Explanatory Notes.

Flatland : Paperback : Oxford University Press : 9780199537501 : 019953750X : 01 Sep 2008 : How would a creature limited to two dimensions be able to grasp the possibility of a third? In Flatland, A Square's linear world is invaded by a Sphere bringing the gospel of the third dimension. Part geometry lesson, part social satire, the novel enlarges readers' imaginations beyond the limits of our 'respective dimensional prejudices'.