FLATLAND
A Romance of Many Dimensions
With Illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE (EDWIN A. ABBOTT)
“Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk”
[Fifth Edition, Revised]
Part 1 — THIS WORLD
Section 1. — Of the Nature of Flatland
Section 2. — Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland
Section 3. — Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland
Section 4. — Concerning the Women
Section 5. — Of our Methods of Recognizing one another
Section 6. — Of Recognition by Sight
Section 7. — Concerning Irreglular Figures
Section 8. — Of the Ancient Practice of Painting
Section 9. — Of the Universal Colour Bill
Section 10. — Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition
Section 11. — Concerning our Priests
Section 12. — Of the Doctrine of our Priests
PART II — OTHER WORLDS
“O brave new worlds, That have such people in them!”
Section 13. — How I had a Vision of Lineland
Section 14. — How I vainly tried to explain the nature of Flatland
Section 15. — Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland
Section 16. — How the Stranger vainly endeavoured to reveal to me in words the mysteries of Spaceland
Section 17. — How the Sphere, having in vain tried words, resorted to deeds
Section 18. — How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there
Section 19. — How, though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries of Spaceland, I still desire more; and what came of it
Section 20. — How the Sphere encouraged me in a Vision.
Section 21. — How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to my Grandson, and with what success
Section 22. — How I then tried to diffuse the Theory of Three Dimensions by other means, and of the result
Notes from XahLee.org
Flatland is a fiction written by Edwin Abbott in 1884. (34 thousand words) For detail about the author, see Wikipedia:
Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926).
The annotation on the side is by me (Xah Lee).
The novel is divided into 2 parts. In the first part, you'll read a mock-history of humanity. Its class struggle, intrigues, dark politics, and massacres. In the second part, the author leads you sublimely into the mathematical wonders of dimensionality, in ways you cannot refuse to understand.
For some other details, film adaptions, sequels by other authors, see: Introduction by Xah Lee.
Download for offline reading:
http://xahlee.org/diklo/flatland.zip.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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