Edwin A. Abbott

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Complete with Illustrations)

This print edition of Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions contains all of the original and vital illustrations, allowing the reader to comprehend the geometry described in the satirical story.First published in the 1880s, Flatland is a playful satire of the hierarchical class structure which Abbott perceived as defining the Victorian society in which he lived. The titular country has a population consisting of different shapes; their shape denotes their place in the society - the more sides the shape has, and the more regular their shape, the higher the place they occupy in the social strata.The ordinary, day-to-day existence of the author (A. Square) is brought into question when he experiences a dream. In it a shape with depth, a Sphere, announces its existence and origin in Spaceland; a place with a third dimension. Thrilled by the revelation, the Square postulates that perhaps there are actually four, five or more dimensions constituting the world.