Flatland · Chapters

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Chapter companions for Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott.

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Chapter 1
Dedication
The author, a humble native of Flatland, dedicates this work to the inhabitants of space in general and H. C. in particular, expressing hope that just as he was initiated into the mysteries of three dimensions, the citizens of the celestial region may aspire to even higher dimensions, thereby enlarging the imagination and developing modesty among the superior races of solid humanity.
Chapter 2
Preface to the Second and Revised Edition, 1884
The Editor introduces the Square's second edition, addressing two objections: an intellectual one about the unrecognized dimension of height in Flatland, and a moral one about the Square's alleged woman-hating and aristocratic tendencies. The Square, now aged and imprisoned, defends his views through the Editor, acknowledging the limitations of perception and the tyranny of dimensional prejudice, while also modifying his personal opinions on women and the lower classes.
Chapter 3
Flatland
The Square introduces the world of Flatland, a two-dimensional plane inhabited by geometric figures, and explains its social hierarchy, where polygons are ranked by the number of their sides and women are represented as straight lines.
Chapter 4
Part I: This World
The narrator, a Square, introduces the world of Flatland, a two-dimensional plane inhabited by geometric shapes. He describes the social hierarchy based on the number of sides, with Circles at the top and Isosceles Triangles at the bottom, and explains the laws of nature and perception in this world.
Chapter 5
I: Of the Nature of Flatland
The narrator, a Square, introduces the two-dimensional world of Flatland, explaining its geometry and the limitations of perception. He describes how inhabitants appear as straight lines to each other due to the lack of a third dimension, using the analogy of a penny viewed edge-on. He contrasts this with the privileged perspective of Spacelanders and hints at his own expanded understanding after visiting Spaceland.

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Dedication

Preface to the Second and Revised Edition, 1884

Flatland

Part I: This World

I: Of the Nature of Flatland