FLATLAND: A Romance of Many Dimensions
A Romance of Many Dimensions
With Illustrations by the Author, A SQUARE (EDWIN A. ABBOTT)
[Fifth Edition, Revised]
Table of Contents
“Fie, fie, how franticly I square my talk”.
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 Xah Lee
Flatland is a fiction written by Edwin A Abbott (1838 to 1926), in 1884. (34 thousand words).
The annotation on the side is by me.
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.
There's an annotated version Annotated Flatland Buy at amazon by Ian Stewart. (2001) I recommend that you read the text completely by itself before reading the annotations.
Chinese version: 神奇的二维国
- Time Machine, by H G Wells.
- Alice in Wonderland