Edwin Abbott's "Flatland: A romance of many dimensions" is a philosophical novel, trying to explain the possibility of there being many dimensions that we as three-dimensional beings are unaware of. We meet our protagonist, A. Square, who finds himself in Flatland, a place populated by beings of one dimension. These beings are effectively invisible to each other when they stand still, so they have cleverly evolved a way of moving which swishes their back ends from side to side to enable them to move forwards and be seen. Mr Square, who obviously does not need to wiggle his back end, is a source of great astonishment, and the one-dimensional beings ...  Read the complete review

When wondering what to use my hard earned DooYoo amazon voucher on I decided to do some research to find a book that I was gonna really love. I ended up here at Edwin Abbotts Flatland, and my god am I glad I did. Edwin Abbott (a victorian school master during the second half of the 19th century) was not a writer I'd encountered before and although the book seemed incredibly short at a mere 80+ pages I just couldn't resist taking on a book that tackled a subject that is central to my understanding of the world and that is the concept of higher dimension. The book not only offers interesting ideas about creatures and worlds in different spatial ...  Read the complete review

I love mathematics - I studied it at university and now I teach it, so little novelties like "Flatland" always pique my interest. When Borders bookshop went into administration, during its last days it offered a ridiculous 90% off reduction, so a good trawling of the already-depleted shelves was in order. Wedged between two fat tomes I found the Dover Thrift Edition of "Flatland", a thin novella I had never heard of before and was very unlikely to put back on the shelf for two reasons: the blurb began with 'This masterpiece of science (and mathematical) fiction...', and the fact that the RRP was only £1.90. With 90% ...  Read the complete review