Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

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CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, Sep 16, 2008 - Computers - 98 pages
FLATLAND: A ROMANCE OF MANY DIMENSIONS is one of the great classic science fiction novels which continues to be as popular today as it ever was. As a satire, Flatland offered pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. However, the novel's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions; in a foreword to one of the many publications of the novel, noted science writer Isaac Asimov described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions." As such, the novel is still popular amongst mathematics, physics and computer science students, as well as the average intelligent and thinking book reader. Several films have been made from the story, including a feature film in 2007 called simply Flatland. Other efforts have been short or experimental films, including one narrated by Dudley Moore and a short film with Martin Sheen titled Flatland: The Movie. And they are all based on this wonderfully imaginative book.

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About the author (2008)

Edwin A. Abbott was born December 20, 1838. He attended City of London School and Cambridge, where he was an honor student in the classics. Following the career path of his father, Abbott was ordained an Anglican minister. Later he rejected a career as a clergyman and at the age of twenty-six, he returned to City of London School as Headmaster, a position he held for twenty-five years. Always curious about views from varying perspectives, he promoted a liberal attitude toward people of differing backgrounds. As president of the Teachers Training Society, for example, he lobbied for access to university education for women. He resigned as Headmaster at age fifty-three in protest of proposed changes to the mission of the school. Abbott wrote more than fifty books on widely different topics. He had published two series of his sermons while at Cambridge, a book on Shakespearean grammar, and accounts of his efforts to admit women to higher education. His most notable work is Flatland, written in 1884. Flatland is still widely read by both mathematicians and science-fiction readers because of its portrayal of the idea of higher dimensions. The narrator, a two-dimensional square called A Square happens into a three-dimensional world where he gains a wider vision into objects in his two-dimensional home. The book was a favorite with C. S. Lewis. Abbott died on October 12, 1926.