Flatland (version 2): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Flatland (version 2), credited to Edwin Abbott Abbott, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox reading of Flatland by Edwin Abbott Abbott (Version 2). Read in English by Linda Olsen Fitak and aaronwhite1977. This is a satirical novel written by Edwin A. Abbott, first published in 1884. Abbott uses a two-dimensional world, with himself as the protagonist, known simply as "A Square", to deride the Victorian aristocracy and its hierarchies. But the book has retained its value throughout the years for its unique portrayal of a two-dimensional world, and how a Sphere introduces the Square to the incomprehensible possibility of a third dimension. Once the square fully understands the third dimension, he suggests to the Sphere that even a fourth, fifth, or sixth dimension could exist. But the Sphere sends the square back to his two-dimensional world, where he cannot convince anyone of the existence of a three dimensional world. - Summary by Linda Olsen Fitak

Recording facts

• Recording title: Flatland (version 2)
• Author credits: Edwin Abbott Abbott
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 23
• Listed recording duration: 4:31:02

Catalogue topics

• satire
• humor
• fiction
• fantasy
• science
• physics
• geometry
• dimensions

Track guide

1. 00 - PREFACE TO THE SECOND AND REVISED EDITION, 1884, BY THE EDITOR — 12:02
2. 01 - Of the Nature of Flatland — 5:55
3. 02 - Of the Climate and Houses in Flatland — 7:00
4. 03 - Concerning the Inhabitants of Flatland — 12:00
5. 04 - Concerning the Women — 16:53
6. 05 - Of Our Methods of Recognizing One Another — 15:50
7. 06 - Of Recognition by Sight — 15:44
8. 07 - Concerning Irregular Figures — 10:59
9. 08 - Of the Ancient Practice of Painting — 9:04
10. 09 - Of the Universal Colour Bill — 10:58
11. 10 - Of the Suppression of the Chromatic Sedition — 13:11
12. 11 - Concerning Our Priests — 8:35
13. 12 - Of the Doctrine of Our Priests — 14:35
14. 13 - How I had a Vision of Lineland — 13:12
15. 14 - How I Vainly Tried to Explain the Nature of Flatland — 13:32
16. 15 - Concerning a Stranger from Spaceland — 9:13
17. 16 - How the Stranger Vainly Endeavored to Reveal to Me in Words the Mysteries of Spaceland — 20:54
18. 17 - How the Sphere, having in vain tried words, resorted to deeds — 6:08
19. 18 - How I came to Spaceland, and what I saw there — 12:02
20. 19 - How, though the Sphere shewed me other mysteries of Spaceland, I still desire more; and what came of it — 17:44
21. 20 - How the Sphere encouraged me in a vision — 8:13
22. 21 - How I tried to teach the Theory of Three Dimensions to my Grandson, and with what success — 6:33
23. 22 - How I then tried to diffuse the Theory of Three Dimensions by other means, and of the result — 10:44

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.