Flatland - Softcover

English schoolmaster and theologian, best known as the author of the mathematical satire and religious allegory Flatland (1884). He was educated at the City of London School and at St John's College, Cambridge, where he took the highest honors in classics, mathematics and theology, and became fellow of his college. He succeeded G. F. Mortimer as headmaster of the City of London School in 1865 at the early age of twenty-six. He retired in 1889, and devoted himself to literary and theological pursuits. Dr. Abbott's liberal inclinations in theology were prominent both in his educational views and in his books. His Shakespearian Grammar (1870) is a permanent contribution to English philology. In 1885 he published a life of Francis Bacon. His theological writings include three anonymously published religious romances - Philochristus (1878), Onesimus (1882), and Sitanus (1906).

Flatland, which is written under the pseudonym "a square", offers pointed observations on the social hierarchy of Victorian culture. Flatland's more enduring contribution is its examination of dimensions; in the words of noted writer Isaac Asimov, Flatland is "the best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions." As such, Flatland is still popular among mathematics, physics and computer science students.