3 h 49 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · 94 pagesHardcover · 6 × 9 in · 94 pagesAbout this book
What if your number of sides decides your place in society—and your eyes cannot see what lies beyond it?
In Edwin Abbott Abbott’s Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, people are shapes in a world of length and width alone. A Square, a respectable lawyer, trusts its strict ranks. Triangles serve as soldiers, while Circles rule as priests. Then a Sphere arrives from Space, challenging everything the narrator thinks he knows.
This short novel turns geometry into a puzzle about perception and power. A Square meets ideas he finds as hard to accept as the King of Lineland finds a second direction. Through their narrow views, Abbott satirises class, prejudice, and the unequal treatment of women in Victorian England—and asks how firmly we should trust our own.
What you’ll discover
- A world without height Picture life on a flat surface, where nobody can look up or down.
- The geometry of power See how sides and angles become excuses for rank, authority, and exclusion.
- A visitor from Space Follow a Square as a Sphere challenges the limits of his familiar world.
- Small minds, sharp satire Meet rulers whose certainty leaves little room for difference or an unfamiliar idea.
- Room for another dimension Consider whether your own view, like the Square’s, leaves something important unseen.
Who will love it
For curious readers who love puzzles of space and logic, and anyone who enjoys sharp satire of class and prejudice.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A world with length and width only
- Your rank depends on your angles
- Women, colour, and the fear of difference
- A dream of a world even smaller
- A visitor from beyond the plane
- What the book is really about
Who’s who
- A SquareThe narrator, a respectable lawyer of Flatland, proud of his rank and clear sight, who is forced to question what he thinks he knows.
- The GrandsonA young hexagon and clever pupil of the Square, who guesses at ideas about number and shape that his grandfather finds foolish.
- The King of LinelandThe ruler of a world with one dimension, who cannot imagine any direction beyond his own line.
- The CirclesThe priests and rulers of Flatland, who guard the social order and fear any change in it, including the use of colour.
- The Stranger from SpaceA visitor from a world of three dimensions, who tries to make the Square understand a reality beyond his plane.
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
by Edwin Abbott Abbott · 1884
A strange visitor asks A Square to imagine a dimension beyond his world and question everything he thinks he knows.
Challenging2–5 hours to readItaliano
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In short
Flatland is a short novel published in 1884 by Edwin Abbott Abbott, a London schoolmaster and clergyman. He put on the title page the name A Square, the name of the book's narrator.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A world with length and width only
The narrator, A Square, opens by telling us that he lives in Flatland. Its people are not able to look up or down, because up and down do not exist for them. Think of a vast sheet of paper with shapes moving over it, never rising and never sinking below it. The Square writes to readers he calls the lucky people of Space, who can see this whole world from above.
He explains how a Flatlander sees. Nobody can view a shape as we view a drawing, since that needs a look from outside the plane. Everyone sees only a line, because the eye meets the edge of another figure and nothing more. Mist hangs about for most of the year outside the hottest regions, and the nearer edge looks brighter than the farther one. People learn to judge a shape by how that brightness fades.
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A strange visitor asks A Square to imagine a dimension beyond his world and question everything he thinks he knows.
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Details
- First published
- 1884
- Language
- Italiano
- Level
- Challenging
- Paperback
- 94 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Hardcover
- 94 pages · 6 × 9 in
- Large print paperback
- 141 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Large print hardcover
- 141 pages · 8.5 × 11 in
- Delivery and returns
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Questions about Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
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What is Flatland about?
Flatland is about a flat world where people are geometric shapes, told by a Square. It describes the strict social order there, then shows how the Square is challenged to imagine dimensions beyond his own.
Is Flatland a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction, published in 1884. Abbott invented the world as a way to explain dimensions and as a satire of Victorian class and the place of women.
Who is A Square in Flatland?
A Square is the narrator, a lawyer and a respectable member of the four sided class in Flatland. Abbott used the name as his pen name on the first edition.
The author
Edwin Abbott Abbott
1838–1926 · English theologian and novelist
Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838–1926) was an English teacher, theologian and author who was born and died in London. He was headmaster of the City of London School from 1865 to 1889. He wrote Flatland (1884), Onesimus (1882) and Silanus the Christian (1906), as well as works on grammar and religion.
More by Edwin Abbott Abbott
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