ABBOTT, Edwin Abbott, as "A Square".

£2,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. First edition of this early experimental science fiction novel. "At once a lesson in higher dimensional geometry, a social satire, and an expression of religious principle, this work gives lasting testimony to Abbott's genius as a teacher and to his literary and moral imagination" (ODNB).Abbott was the headmaster of the City of London School for nearly a quarter of a century, his innovative methods winning the school "the distinction of providing the highest intellectual training". Essentially a mathematical fantasia describing a society of two-dimensional geometrical shapes - the denizens of Flatland - the book is dedicated "To The Inhabitants of Space in General... by a Humble Native of Flatland In the Hope that Even as he was Initiated into the Mysteries of Three Dimensions Having been previous conversant with Only Two So the Citizens of that Celestial Region May aspire yet higher and higher To the Secrets of Four Five or even Six Dimensions Thereby contributing To the Enlargement of The Imagination". After Einstein's publication of his general theory of relativity, with its suggestion of a fourth dimension, the book was reappraised for its imaginative yet scientific engagement with the idea of extra dimensions.

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