The Annotated Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions Book

The satirical "Flatland" was published in 1884 by the English clergyman and headmaster Edwin A. Abbott. It is the fanciful tale of A. Square, a two-dimensional being who is whisked away by a mysterious visitor to The Land of Three Dimensions, an experience that forever alters his worldview. By contemplating the notion of dimensions beyond their own, Abbott's Victorian readers were exposed to the then-radical idea of a fourth dimension - preparing them for Einstein's theories of relativity. Like the book itself, Ian Stewart's commentary takes readers on a strange and wonderful journey. Stewart illuminates Abbott's numerous Victorian references, weaves in little-known biographical information about Abbott and his intellectual circle - elucidating Abbott's connection to H.G. Wells and the mathematician George Boole - and traces the scientific evolution of geometric forms and dimensions. In addition Stewart provides an extensive bibliography of Abbott's work and that of Charles Howard Hilton, whose wild speculations on the fourth dimension undoubtedly inspired Abbott's fable. Touching on such diverse topics as ancient Babylon, Karl Marx, the Indian Mutiny of 1857, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the Gregorian calendar, Mount Everest, and phrenology, Stewart makes connections between "Flatland" and Edward A. Abbott's life and times.