Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions

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Penguin, Jun 1, 1998 - Fiction - 144 pages
A “romance in many dimensions” that has fascinated generations of readers with its clever blend of social satire and mathematical theory

A Penguin Classic


A work that continues to pose provocative questions about perception and reality, Flatland is a brilliant parody of Victorian society where all existence is limited to length and breadth—its inhabitants unable even to imagine a third dimension. The amiable narrator, A Square, provides an overview of this fantastic world—its physics and metaphysics, its history, customs and religious beliefs. But when a strange visitor mysteriously appears and transports the incredulous Flatlander to the Land of Three Dimensions, his world view is forever shattered. Written more than a century ago, Flatland conceals within its brilliant parody of Victorian society speculations about the universe that resonate in Einstein’s theory of relativity as well as the current “string-theory” of nature.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
 

Selected pages

Contents

Preface to the Second and Revised Edition 1884
1
This World
5
Of the Nature of Flatland
7
Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland
10
Concerning the Inhabitants of Flat land
13
Concerning the Women
17
Of our Methods in Recognizing one another
23
Of Recognition by Sight
29
Of the Doctrine of our Priests
56
Other Worlds
63
How I had a Vision of Lineland
65
How I vainly tried to explain the nature of Flatland
71
Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland
77
How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland
81
How the Sphere having in vain tried words resorted to deeds
90
How I came to Spaceland and what I saw there
93

Concerning Irregular Figures
35
Of the Ancient Practice of Painting
39
Of the Universal Colour Bill
43
Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition
48
Concerning our Priests
53
How though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries of Spaceland I still desired more and what came of it
99
How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision
107
How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to my Grandson and with what success
111
How I then tried to diffuse the Theory of Three Dimensions by other means and of the result
114
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About the author (1998)

Edwin A. Abbott (1838–1926) was a leading scholar and theologian of the Victorian era.

Alan Lightman (introduction), the author of Einstein's Dream and other books, is an astrophysicist and the director of the writing program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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