Audio only
Length3h 43m
About this audiobook
Written in 1884 by English schoolteacher Edwin Abbott Abbott, "Flatland" (full name "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions") is a literary hybrid, a math- and science-based novella that creates a fictional land while at the same time satirizing Victorian culture and introducing theories of space’s multi-dimensional nature.
Flatland is a world that exists on the two-dimensional plane, where its inhabitants—literal geometrical shapes—live in a highly-structured society organized into classes based on the number of sides of a figure. The narrator and protagonist of "Flatland", mathematician A. Square (a pseudonym originally given as the author of the book), writes from prison, intricately detailing the social organization of his country and recounting the revelations he has received from the sacred “Sphere.”
In Flatland women are straight lines and are considered the lowest of shapes. Men are polygons and the number of sides they have is dependent on their ranking in the social hierarchy. Odd and unexpected incidents bring A. Square together with numerous other geometric shapes. Some of the places he ventures into are Spaceland, which has three dimensions, Lineland, which is one-dimensional, and Pointland, which does not have any dimensions. A. Square also imagines a land with four dimensions, which is considered a subversive concept.
While other Victorian literature may be turned to more frequently as “classic” examples of time and genre, "Flatland" remains intellectually challenging given that it prompts an examination of the elements of society without needing to adhere to a firm delineation between fact and fiction.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.1 (255.7K)
Includes Goodreads, LibraryThing, StoryGraph, Amazon
GenreDystopia, Literary Classics, Science Fiction
Length3 hrs 43 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateOct 30, 2020
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1FLATLAND
2Preface To The Second And Revised Edition, 1884
3PART 1: THIS WORLD
4Section 1. Of The Nature Of Flatland
5Section 2. Of The Climate And Houses In Flatland
Show all chaptersShow less
6Section 3. Concerning The Inhabitants Of Flatland
7Section 4. Concerning The Women
8Section 5. Of Our Methods Of Recognizing One Another
9Section 6. Of Recognition By Sight
10Section 7. Concerning Irregular Figures
11Section 8. Of The Ancient Practice Of Painting
12Section 9. Of The Universal Colour Bill
13Section 10. Of The Suppression Of The Chromatic Sedition
14Section 11. Concerning Our Priests
15Section 12. Of The Doctrine Of Our Priests
16PART 2: OTHER WORLDS
17Section 13. How I Had A Vision Of Lineland
18Section 14. How I Vainly Tried To Explain The Nature Of Flatland
19Section 15. Concerning A Stranger From Spaceland
20Section 16. How The Stranger Vainly Endeavoured To Reveal To Me In Words The Mysteries Of Spaceland
21Section 17. How The Sphere, Having In Vain Tried Words, Resorted To Deeds
22Section 18. How I Came To Spaceland, And What I Saw There
23Section 19. How, Though The Sphere Shewed Me Other Mysteries Of Spaceland, I Still Desired More; And What Came Of It
24Section 20. How The Sphere Encouraged Me In A Vision
25Section 21. How I Tried To Teach The Theory Of Three Dimensions To My Grandson, And With What Success
26Section 22. How I Then Tried To Diffuse The Theory Of Three Dimensions By Other Means, And Of The Result
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