Unless you're a mathematician, the chances of you reading any novels about geometry are probably slender.

But if you read only two in your life, these are the ones.

Taken together, they form a couple of accessible and charming explanations of geometry and physics for the curious non-mathematician.

Flatland, which is also available under separate cover, was published in 1880 and imagines a two-dimensional world inhabited by sentient geometric shapes who think their planar world is all there is.

But one Flatlander, a Square, discovers the existence of a third dimension and the limits of his world's assumptions about reality and comes to understand the confusing problem of higher dimensions.

The book is also quite a funny satire on society and class distinctions of Victorian England.

The further mathematical fantasy, Sphereland, published 60 years later, revisits the world of Flatland in time to explore the mind-bending theories created by Albert Einstein, whose work so completely altered the scientific understanding of space, time, and matter.

For more information about the title Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (Dover Thrift Editions), read the full description at Amazon.com, or see the following related books:

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Author: Edwin A. Abbott

Publisher: Dover Publications

Date: Mar. 26, 2007

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