Flatland: A romance of many dimensions

A. Square is a resident of flatland, a two-dimensional world populated by regular polygons. In this world, women have the lowest social standing, they are mere straight lines. The men may have any number of sides depending on their social standing.

A. Square describes his world, the five-sided houses, the separate entrance for the “dangerous” women, and the social mores of a world where his perception is limited to just one dimension. Between the lines, it is a satire on the rigid social mores of the Victorian era when this book was first published.

A. Square is visited by a strange beings from other lands, allowing him to encounter life-forms from other lands: the three-dimensional “space-land”, the lowly one-dimensional “line-land”, and even the non-dimensional “point-land”. Enthralled by the new and enlightened dimensions he has encountered, A. Square harbours thoughts about visiting a four-dimensional world, which shocks his interlocutor so much that A. Square is promptly returned back to his world, Flatland.

Edwin A. Abbott was a clergyman, educator and Shakespearean scholar, which just makes the very existence of this book that much more delightful. A very short book that is fascinating reading and an excellent introduction to the concept of multiple dimensions in space.