Edwin A. Abbott

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions Edwin A. Abbott

Edwin Abbott was a mathematician who used the idea of 'Flatland' - a world of just two dimensions - to poke fun at caste-ridden Victorian Society. The book also allowed him to explore the nature of dimensions and our own perceptual limitations. In the book a three-dimensional being can view the workings of 'Flatland' yet remains invisible to its two-dimensional inhabitants. Abbott then leads the reader into the contemplation of new dimensions that may yet exist beyond our own 'real world' of height, width and length. Similar developments in Modern Physics have greatly increased 'Flatland's' popular appeal, with Isaac Asimov hailing the book as "the best introduction into... perceiving dimensions".