Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Kindle Edition)

by Edwin A. Abbott (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is an 1884 novella by Edwin A. Abbott, still popular among mathematics and computer science students, and considered useful reading for people studying topics such as the concept of other dimensions. As a piece of literature, Flatland is respected for its satire on the social hierarchy of Victorian society.

The story posits a two dimensional world (Flatland). The unnamed narrator, a humble square (the social caste of gentlemen and professionals), guides us through some of the implications of life in two dimensions. The Square has a dream about a visit to a one-dimensional world (Lineland), and attempts to convince the realm's ignorant monarch of a second dimension, but finds that it is essentially impossible to make him see outside of his eternally straight line.

Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 194 KB
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0015L526U
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,134 in Kindle Store (See Bestsellers in Kindle Store)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlargement of the Imagination, Indeed!! Great for any age, June 17, 2009

By	C. M. Peterson (Okaloosa Island USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Read aloud, Abbotts' Shakespearean flare rings out with lovely sounds as wonderful to ears of a toddler at bedtime as it is to an adult with spirited imagination or any rebel who enjoys the venting of 'dangerous utterances'. An enchanting read at any age. I recommend it for younger readers so that they may have many years to re-read and grow with it.

If you find a modern-day difficultly with Abbott's gender inequality (a clear challenge to some animators),consider that orthogonal planes do indeed look like lines to each other. "When ... flat human is turned on his side, his personality is hidden inside the plane ... indistinguishable from others. Another human then turned to her side orthogonal to the first would then appear just a line. We...turn to adornment to reveal a contrived identity, whether true or deceitful. Instead, if we were to expand the dimensionality of our perception we could see inside both the male and female planes. " (Peterson, Flatland Point: The DRUM & DRAW Navigations, 2009)

5.0 out of 5 stars flatlanders, May 9, 2009

By	Jay E. Schwantes "a majority of one" (Calif.) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Reading reviews on this little gem of a novelette I have owned for over 33 years now, I see most have completely missed the point. Square states this clearly: "inspired people are always considered by the majority to be mad". Although Abbott's little book has been embraced by generations, used as a guide to kiddy schoolers in understanding geometry, its message runs much deeper. It is an illustration of mankind's effect on innovators who disclose knowledge at the cosmological level. It is the story that parallels all those who became a majority of one, all those who have seen further than others, to all who examine a pretty shell at the beach and realize there is a sea of knowledge before them, to all who have dared to step outside the box. Those are the innovators who have stepped out of flatland into spaceland and were subsequently denounced and ridiculed. Galileo, who expanded the universe a thousand fold, was put into house arrest by the inquisition...those priests refusing to "look through his tube" (a telescope). We pay the Edison company for a Nikola Tesla product (the inventor of alternating current). Tesla died almost forgotten and penniless. When demonstrating the first electro-magnetic device, Faraday was asked what good is it? His response, "I don't know...what good is a newborn baby? Someday they will learn how to tax it". The history and drama of the discoverer is the story of "square", his newly acquired cosmological knowledge through meeting "sphere", and what happened when he tried to disclose it to flatlanders. "Square" was a spacelander in a world of flatlanders.

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought provoking and fun to read., April 15, 2009

By	almac (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews

It's humorous and it also shows how hard it is to expand your outlook. The difficulty for someone living in one dimension (point land) trying to conceive of two dimensional life (flatland) and the flatlanders trying to imagine three dimensional life (space land).

It was written over one hundred years ago and I have read reviews that say it's politically incorrect, but I don't see it. Anyway, it's worth looking at and the price is right.