Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions is a novel written by Edwin Abbott Abbott in 1884.

The novel describes a world that exists in two dimensions, called Flatland. The inhabitants of this world are geometric shapes, such as triangles or squares, and they move by sliding across the surface of their world.

One day, a being from a three-dimensional world visits Flatland and shows one of its inhabitants what existence is like in three dimensions. This is very confusing for any inhabitant of Flatland, who have never imagined such a thing.

The book is an allegory of the way people can be limited by their own perspective. It is also a satire of Victorian social conventions.

This book is illustrated with original drawings.

"I call our world Flatland, not because we call it so, but to make its nature clearer to you, my happy readers, who are privileged to live in Space.
Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows—only hard and with luminous edges—and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe": but now my mind has been opened to higher views of things".