Edwin Abbott Abbott, Thomas F. Banchoff, William F. Lindgren - Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Pros: Wonderfully imaginative, contains hidden humour and sharp satire.
Cons: Not for people who intensely hate math. (without the "intensely" your're ok...)

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...

Pros: Short, concise, fun, maybe even a little educational
Cons: First half is somewhat tedious, some antiquated notions

Edwin A Abbott's Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a bizarre little book. Topping out at eighty pages, it is remarkably rich in detail and full of interesting notions, some of them quite socially antiquated. Originally published about...

Pros: Thought provoking, unique, short and sweet.
Cons: Somewhat dense and tedious at times.

This book is fascinating. I've read a few of the prior reviews of this book, and I found it quite interesting that a lot of people see it as such a "mathematical" book, for lack of a better adjective. It's true that this book does employ plenty of ...

Pros: Everything
Cons: Nothing that I can think of

FLatland was written by Edwin A. Abbott (1838 - 1926) in 1884. The book is supposed to be the memoirs of A. Square, an inhabitant of Flatland. The first half of the book is a description of Flatland, and world that has only two dimensions and exists on...

Pros: really makes you think, helps you understand advanced geometry
Cons: social commentary somewhat outdated

My romance with many dimensions began the first time I read this book. My dad came home one day and handed it to me. I was hooked. At the time, I was most interested in the mathematical aspects of the book. I was a little physicist in the making, and...

Pros: mind opening in a creative but indirect way
Cons: there is not a sequel by the same author

There is much more to this book than the story of a square living in his planar world. It truly shows how unaware we are of other worlds. When the square dreams of Lineland (where people are dots and dashes) he takes a step down to a one...

Pros: Biting social commentary
Cons: Sexist

Not too many tales center around geometry. It is social commentary disguised in a story about a two dimensional world. The main character is a square, and a sphere from the three dimensional world comes to make him a disciple. We learn about the life...

Pros: Short and entertaining
Cons: There's nothing seriously wrong with it. It's just an interesting little book.

I don't think I'll ever forget how stifled my math classes have always been; the constant meaningless equations and number-crunching that seemed insignificant in comparison to the majesty of theory. Flatland, however, is purely theory.

The...

Pros: Good, Creative idea
Cons: Undeveloped, nonexciting narrative

While this book starts out with an interesting idea, it fails to narrate effectively and interestingly. The first half of the book is pretty much just a list of statements about flatland. There is no plot in the first half and while there is a bit of foreshadowing, it is not enough to actually want to read the full thing. The second half gets somewhat better, but I'm not sure if it really compensates for having to read the first half. If I had to give a suggestion, I would say that if you were interested in reading this I would either read an abridged copy or just read a couple chapters in the beginning to get a feel for flatland and then skip to the second part.

Pros: Outstanding perspective on life. Written with both insight into human nature and wit.
Cons: None which come to mind

I have owned my copy of this small book for about 50 years now and treasure it immensely. There is so much insight and wisdom in it that it is remarkable that it can all be compressed into such a tiny book. The writing is brilliant! Like many allegories some will see only the surface and miss the meanings. Look deeper.