Flatland
A Romance of Many Dimensions
Edwin A. Abbott 1884
A square narrates this mathematical fantasy about life in a two-dimensional world with strict social ranks. A visiting sphere introduces him to a third dimension he never imagined.
122 pages 2h 22m reading time
- A classic of mathematical fiction and one of the best-known stories ever written about dimensions.
- Shows how hard it is to picture a world beyond your own senses, since a being in two dimensions can no more imagine "up" than we can picture a fourth direction in space.
- Mocks the rigid class system and the treatment of women in Victorian England by turning them into absurd rules about shapes and angles.
- Became a standard way to teach the idea of higher dimensions, and teachers and scientists, including the astronomer Carl Sagan in his TV series "Cosmos," still use its square-and-sphere picture to explain them.
- Inspired many later books and films set in imagined dimensions, including Dionys Burger's "Sphereland" and Ian Stewart's "Flatterland," which continue its story.
A hidden name joke
It first appeared under the pen name "A Square," a playful nod to the author's double name, Abbott Abbott (A squared).
Quick reply to critics
Within months, a second edition added a preface where the Square defends himself against claims the book looked down on women.
Part of a craze
It appeared when many Victorians were excited by the idea of a fourth dimension, a topic also explored by writer Charles Hinton.
Rediscovered after Einstein
It drew modest notice at first, then won new readers once Einstein's ideas about space and time made dimensions famous.