Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
Published 1884 · 130 pages · 31,451 words · about 2 hours at an average pace · Nonfiction, Philosophy, Satire & Humor, Science & Nature
How hard is Flatland to read?
Flatland scores 32 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 32 out of 100
- Victorian prose. Mathematical and geometric terms.
- Sentence structure: 35 out of 100
- Abstraction: 55 out of 100
- Abstract mathematical concepts through narrative allegory.
- Information density: 45 out of 100
- Dense for its length. Mathematical and social satire layered.
- Narrative indirection: 25 out of 100
- Allegory. The surface story encodes mathematical and social meanings.
- Symbolic density: 40 out of 100
- Everything is symbolic: shapes, dimensions, social structure.
- Ironic distance: 35 out of 100
- Devastating Victorian satire throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 20 out of 100
- A. Square is imprisoned for speaking the truth. Ambiguous ending.
- Structural complexity: 22 out of 100
- Two parts: Flatland society, then the visitation from Spaceland.
How Flatland is regarded
Flatland holds a literary regard score of 54 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.