No-one can blame Abbott for a lack of imagination. The main character of the novel is a square, living in a world that has no up or down.

There are two interlaced themes in the book - first, braking the barriers of thought usually constrained to the three dimensions we perceive, and secondly pointing out, with the cracking of the whip of satire, the social injustices and prejudices of Abbott's time.

Written in 1884, and being essentially science fiction, "Flatland" was far ahead of it's time.

The story is set in "Flatland", a world that has only two dimensions. All the inhabitants are geometrical shapes of various kind, the main character, as earlier mentioned, being a square. As any flat geometrical shape seen from the side, having no height, looks like a straight line, there is bound to be some difficulty in discerning the high-class circles from the brutish triangles.... Abbott concentrates much in the novel on illuminating the social structures and conventions of flatland, partly dictated by the lack of a third dimension, yet peculiarly similar to the society of Abbott's time.

Here the satire comes in (the satire that had apparently mislead at least one reviewer here to an outrage over the "racism" of the book) - with a firm tongue in cheek touch, Abbott created a flat universe where social position is reflected in form and shape - the more corners you have, and the more symmetrical you are, the "obviously" higher developed person you are, and the higher your social status. The people of highest breeding and status have so many corners that they are nearly circular in shape. The lowest class of workers and soldiers are brutishly irregular triangles, with one pointy edge making them almost.... *gasp* women!

Women, being obviously inferior (remember... this is satire), are all simple lines with no angles at all, just two pointy ends. Women are dangerous, since from one side, if they stand straight, they are completely invisible, and with them being so pointy, they could accidentally puncture a distinguished, many angled male (who cares about the low class triangles....).

Abbott notes the social attitudes of his time, and brings them to flatland in an exaggerated form - I'm sure that more than a few distinguished contemporaries felt the sting of that satire....

The idea of the story is that this main character, the square, gets unwittingly initiated to the wonders of three dimensions, and then tries in vain to explain it all to the other occupants of Flatland. I don't want to deprive you of the joy of the reading experience, so I'll leave it there. Toward the end, there is inspiring and thoughtful contemplation of dimensions higher than 3.

All in all, flatland is a classic, and a novel well worth a read.

Recommended: Yes