About this title: The first-ever annotated edition of the beloved classic, beautifully illustrated and brilliantly brought to life for a new generation of readers.. Flatland is a unique, delightful satire that has charmed readers for over a century. Published in 1884 by the English clergyman and head-master Edwin A. Abbott, it is the fanciful tale of A. Square, a two-dimensional being who is whisked away by a mysterious visitor to The Land of Three Dimensions, an experience that forever alters his worldview. By contemplating the notion of dimensions beyond their own, Abbott's Victorian readers were exposed ...
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Description: Good. 0465011233 Ships from PA, Return within 10 days for any reasons. Fast Shipping. Crease on front cover, minor crease on back cover. read more
Description: Good. 0465011233 Book could have a shelf wear, or a bump, or sunfade to edges. These are new unread books from the publisher with one of these conditions. See are feedback as customers are satisfied in how we grade our books. Fast shipping and customer service is our number 1 priority! read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners. Spine has wear at edges. Dust jacket has some wear. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 2008-07-21
ISBN-13:9780465011230ISBN:0465011233
Description: New. No jacket as issued. New paperback book with very slight shelf wear on covers. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 2008-07-21
ISBN-13:9780465011230ISBN:0465011233
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780465011230. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Basic Books
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780465011230ISBN:0465011233
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Edition: First edition. First printing, stated
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Perseus Publishing
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780738205410ISBN:0738205419
Description: Very good in good dust jacket. Text and binding are near fine in dustjacket with minor handling. Nice. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 239 p. Contains: Illustrations. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Perseus Books Group, Cambridge, MA
Date Published: 2001
ISBN-13:9780738205410ISBN:0738205419
Description: Near Fine in Near Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" Tall. First Edition, First Printing (stated), November 2001. Hard cover lg. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" Tall. Near Fine book in like unclipped DJ, now in clear protective cover. Pages rippled (no moisture or staining evident), else Fine; jacket rubbed w/ prominent crease bottom front panel, worn at spine tips and corners w/ tiny closed tears at crown. Abbott's classic mathematical/philosophical treatise on life in a two-dimensional world, now annotated and ... read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Perseus Publishing
Date Published: 2001-12
ISBN-13:9780738205410ISBN:0738205419
Description: Like New. An apparently unread copy in perfect condition. Dust cover is intact; pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. read more
"Some Favorite lines: p.109. Regarding the King of Pointland, the Sphere states ...to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy. p.20. It is only now and then in some very remote and backward agricultural district that an antiquarian may still discover a square house. p.43. ...but imagine that your Tradesman drags behind his regular and respectable vertex, a parallelogram of twelve or thirteen inches in diagonal: --what are you to do with such a monster sticking fast in your house door? p.61. 'Attend to your Configuration.' p.82. A Proverb common with the Frailer Sex in Flatland, 'A Straight Line to the touch is worth a Circle to the sight'.,/i> p.84. The thought flashed across me that I might have before me a burglar or cut-throat, some monstrous Irregular Isosceles, who, by feigning the voice of a Circle, had obtained admission somehow into the house, and was now preparing to stab me with his acute angle."
"Written in 1884, this brief book describes the inhabitants, geography, and living conditions in Flatland, an imaginary two-dimensional world, and exposes us to the millennial visit to Flatland of a sphere from Spaceland. The sphere attempts, with increasing frustration, to persuade a Flatland resident that there is in fact a different, three-dimensional world. We also visit Lineland and Pointland, exposing us to the very real possibility that there may very well be a four-dimensional world of which we here in Spaceland are blissfully unaware. Of course, a number of more current science fiction stories have been written on that supposition, but this quaint and charming book was probably the first of them. It's thought-provoking, fun, and even functions as a satire, shedding light on the way we treat each other here in Spaceland by looking at how people live in Flatland. Highly recommended."
"This is an interesting little book, which is set in a two dimesnional universe "Flatland". The main character is a polygon, living in a world of polygons. It goes on to describe the various different shaped characters in his world, and how they all co-exist within a strange but organized social hierachy. The main idea of the book is to help explain 'dimensions', with the added sprinkle of social satire!
The inhabitants of the two dimensional world of Flatland, cannot possibly imagine anything set within a three dimensional universe, in the same way that we in our human world have trouble grasping four dimensions. Yet our main character visits the world of three dimensions, and sees his own Flatland from above! He also goes on to visit the world of One dimension.
This was written in the 19th Century. It is an imaginitive and quite amusing 'essay', rather than a story. The plot is a vehicle to explain mathematics.
At times I wanted to give up with the read. But I am glad I prevailed. I believe this book was read by a young Einstein!"
"This book was quite a surprise. It's sort of dystopic Gulliver's Travels version of intro to geometry. Probably the thing that amazed me the most was that is was written in the 1880's, which I didn't know until doing some background reading about Abbott.
For those who don't know, Flatland posits a world which is two dimensional. The narrator has almost divine visions/visitations, first of a 1 dimensional world (Lineworld) and then of a 3D world (Spaceland). It doesn't have a plot per se, but rather it unviels another world in the process of illuminating geometric principles.
In so far as math goes, the story does give you a very small primer on geometry, but in truth the simple things it sets out to prove are done in such a way that I think un-mathy people will have trouble following it. It makes me wonder if the ability to understand the book easily was a basic expectation for educational institutions of the time, because wow, I can't imagine my 6th graders grokking the book.
However, the most interesting aspect of the book to me was not the math instruction but the society which Abbott creates. The first half of the book sets out to give the reader an understanding of the society, and it is very cool how the narrator sees his extremely classist, totalitarian society as a common sensical outgrowth of the "natural laws" of his world. Females are innately incapable of logic and memory simple because lines don't have the girth to have much intellect. Irregular figures (which in their minds are solids as they can only perceive and conceive of two dimensions) must be criminals for their potential to disrupt society. Classes exist along polygonal divisions, isoceles triangles being the lowest (and also okay to wholesale murder, apparently) and those many-sided polygons so diverse as to approximate circularity being the priesthood pinacle. Although the narrator thinks of he and his as humans, it was almost easier to see them biological factors on a cellular level. All in all, very cool.
So why only three stars? Well, first and foremost, my main love in books is for the story. The story in this was middling. Also, maybe just because it was a little archaic in writing style, or perhaps simply because the attitudes of the inhabitants being archaic to the point of barbarism in a sense, it was a bit of a slog to get through despite the books 100 page length. It is, however, one of the most unique things I've ever read, though that may say more about my own reading proclivities.
If you have an interest in math, or are willing to abide it and have a decent interest in sf for all the Asimov/Clarke type reasons, definitely read this. If you are intrigued by fascist regimes, check this out. If you find Shelley or Swift's writing enthralling, I think you'd like this. Three stars or not, it's a very cool book."
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