Roberta Writes – Book review: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott #readingcommunity

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Dave Astor writes fascinating and thought-provoking posts about all things literary. If you don’t know his blog, you can find it here: https://daveastoronliterature.com/

This week, Dave’s post is entitled When genres are happy together and you can read it here: https://daveastoronliterature.com/2024/11/03/when-genres-are-happy-together/

I am responding with my own analysis of the book, Flatland, which I read recently and which I will read again. It is the first book that came to mind when I considered this topic of merged genres.

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Picture cover: Flatland cover. You can purchase Flatland from Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Edwin-Abbott/dp/B0875SRH84

Flatland is a satirical novella by Edwin Abbott Abbott and was first published in 1884. This in itself is incredible given the thought process and analysis of one dimensional, two dimensional, three dimensional and even four-dimensional concepts and ideas in this book. Flatland is also classified as a science fiction book.

The protagonist and narrator of this story is A Square who lives in the fictional two-dimensional world of Flatland. All the inhabitants of Flatland are geometric figures (called Flatlanders). The women are line segments, and the men are polygons with various numbers of sides.

To fully appreciate Flatland, the reader must understand that the author lived in Britain during the Victorian era. This was a period of rapid change in British society due to industrialisation. It was also a time of intense social and cultural tensions and changes. Victorian society was strictly divided into the upper, middle, and working classes. These social distinctions were exacerbated by the progress and development taking place at the time (The story of the sinking of the Titanic is very informative about British and American social classes at the time). At the same time, the field of non-Euclidean geometry in mathematics was gaining a lot of interest from prominent mathematicians.

Overview of Flatland

Flatland is a two-dimensional world inhabited by Flatlanders who live in a highly structured society organised into strict classes based on the number of sides of the men. Irregularity is not tolerated as, to quote A Square: “irregularity is not only immoral but criminal.”

The women don’t count at all as they are merely straight lines and are not considered worthy of education. They are only considered at all for their reproductive purposes and role as homemakers but are described as being capable of destruction of their families if angered.

The societal attitude towards women in Victorian England is illustrated by this quote from John Ruskin, Sesame and Lilies, 1865:

The man’s power is active, progressive, defensive. He is eminently the doer, the creator, the discoverer, the defender. His intellect is for speculation, and invention; his energy for adventure war, and for conquest.. but the woman’s power is for rule, not for battle – and her intellect is not for invention or creation, but for sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision… she must be enduringly, incorruptibly good; instinctively, infallibly wise, wise not for self development, but for self-renunciation: wise, not that she may set herself above her husband, but that she may never fail from his side.’

This stereotypical attitude comes through strongly in Flatland with regards to women.

A Square writes his story from prison and details the social organisation of Flatland and the revelations he received about a three-dimensional land called Spaceland from the Sphere who visits A Square on the eve of the new millennium. The purpose of the Sphere’s visit is to find an apostle in Flatland who he can teach about the Third Dimension.

A Square does not understand the Sphere’s teachings which are uncomfortable and unbelievable to a two-dimensional shape who lives under the strict doctrine of social order dictated by the Circles, Flatland priests who make up the highest class. Even though A Square is a member of the caste of gentlemen and professionals, the concept of a three-dimensional world is outside his experience and contradictory to the laws and views of the Circles which makes his speculations with the Sphere heretical and punishable by imprisonment or even death. The Sphere responds to A Square’s rejection of his teachings by taking him to Spaceland to experience 3D for himself.

In advance of the visit from the Sphere, A Square has a dream where he visits a one-dimensional world, Lineland. Lineland is inhabited by men who consist of lines and women who are lustrous points. During the course of this dream, A Square has a conversation with the monarch of Lineland and attempts to convince him of the existence of his two-dimensional land of Flatland. He meets with the same resistance from the monarch that he exhibits to the Sphere when introduced to the idea of Spaceland. A Square has this dream-state experience under his belt when he visits Spaceland.

A Square is convinced about the existence of other dimensions, and he tries to convince the Sphere of the theoretical possibility of the existence of a fourth dimension and higher spatial dimensions. The Sphere is horrified by A Square’s ideas and returns him to Flatland in disgrace.

A Square has another dream during which the Sphere takes him to a zero-dimensional space called Pointland. The single occupant of Pointland, a Point, is its monarch and universe in one, and he perceives any communication as a thought originating from himself as he can’t conceive of any other forms of life.

This experience with the Point further opens A Square’s mind to the ignorance of the monarchs of both Pointland and Lineland and even the ruling Circles in Flatland. He is so inspired and excited by his newfound knowledge; he can’t help sharing his ideas despite such talk being against the law. A Square is ultimately imprisoned and decides to write the book, Flatland, as his memoir, in the hope that future generations might appreciate its content.

In addition to its mathematical concepts and ideas, the first half of Flatland is a social satire which examines the inflexibility of Victorian society through the fictional Flatland. In Flatland, society is rigidly divided into classes and freedoms are few for the working classes. Even the middle classes must live by the rules dished out by the upper classes. Anyone who goes against the rules and promotes any change is either killed or promoted to a higher class, depending on the situation. Promotion is a way of collaborating with any valuable intellect coming from the working class. Any deviant thinking or attempts at changed are considered dangerous and harmful.

This was a fascinating and insightful book and one I will definitely revisit.

Quotes from Flatland

“Behold yon miserable creature. That Point is a Being like ourselves, but confined to the non-dimensional Gulf. He is himself his own World, his own Universe; of any other than himself he can form no conception; he knows not Length, nor Breadth, nor Height, for he has had no experience of them; he has no cognizance even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality, for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing. Yet mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.”

“Either this is madness or it is Hell.” “It is neither,” calmly replied the voice of the Sphere, “it is Knowledge; it is Three Dimensions: open your eye once again and try to look steadily.”

“All this very plausible reasoning does not convince me, as it has not convinced the wisest of our Statesmen, that our ancestors erred in laying it down as an axiom of policy that the toleration of Irregularity is incompatible with the safety of the State.”

My thanks to Donna from Retirement Reflections from introducing me to two lists of books to read before you die in her post here: https://retirementreflections.com/2024/09/19/one-book-leads-to-another/. I discovered Flatland through one of these lists.

If you prefer to watch a movie, I found this trailer for the movie of Flatland:

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Published by robertawrites235681907

I am a writer of young adult fiction and poetry

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55 thoughts on “Roberta Writes – Book review: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott #readingcommunity”

  6. Interesting! As someone lacking spacial intelligence, I wouldn’t do well with this book, even though it has an important message. In my world, “flatlander” is a pejorative term for people who aren’t native Vermonters.

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  8. A superb and fascinating review, Robbie! “Flatland” sounds absolutely mind-blowing, especially for its time. It’s now on my to-read list, and I hope my local library has it. 🙂 A real shame about the blatant sexism, though, albeit not surprising for the 19th century (and beyond).

    And thanks so much for mentioning me and my literature blog! Very appreciated!

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  10. Wow! Who ever heard of such a book? I’m stunned about when it was written.

    It sounds fascinating. In this article you not only exhibit your education and learning acumen, but your acute intellectuality.

    Thank you, Robbie!

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    1. Hi Resa, this is a fascinating book. I enjoyed the author’s intriguing two dimensional world and social hierarchy. The author was a very clever man. I do read some odd books. I always have. I’m grateful to Donna for sharing these two lists of interesting books 💚

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  12. Thanks for the references, Robbie! I got a free copy of ‘Flatland’ from Project Gutenberg (ePub edition for Kindle). I am looking forward to exploring the multi-genres. For those interested in getting a free copy, enter ‘Edwin A. Abbott’ into Gutenberg’s search engine and you’ll see his other books, too.

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  17. I’ve heard only a little about this book. So reading your review was really interesting and illuminating. Sounds like a neat way to show the advice to readers: you shouldn’t swallow everything that is told you about the world.

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  18. This is a very interesting post, Robbie. I wasn’t familiar with the story or the film. I couldn’t help snorting at the diagram’s “women’s entrance” location and size, and how little things have changed for the majority of us.

    Thanks for sharing your review. Hugs.

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    1. Hi Teagan, your comment is correct. It is not quite as bad as having separate entrances in commerce, but the discrimination is still there. I have battled it for years. Its okay if you aren’t in a confrontational role, but as soon as you need to tell corporate men they are wrong, you hit a big wall of adversity. I am always right and it always gets sorted out in the end but the stress and strain is awful and I’ll be glad to early retire in a few years’ time.

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  19. What an interesting post, Robbie. You pick such unusual books and I get so drawn into your analysis. I hadn’t heard of this book before, and though I probably won’t pick it up, I’ll remember it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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