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reviewed Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott (Princeton science library)

Edwin Abbott Abbott, Ian Stewart: Flatland (Paperback, 1991, Princeton University Press) 4 stars

Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, though written in 1884, is still considered useful in …

Contender for "Greatest Book Ever"

5 stars

I'm perhaps being a little over-the-top there, but also not really. The way this book serves as political/societal satire while simultaneously teaching a fairly advanced mathematical concept in an entertaining and accessible way is masterful. The social commentary may be a bit less relevant than it was in its time, but sadly still isn't entirely irrelevant even now, and I think the geometry lesson is still one of the best explanations of the concept I've seen.