X-Sender: Lisa_Eckstein@postoffice.brown.edu Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 1996 19:47:46 -0500
To: Thomas_Banchoff@postoffice.brown.edu (Thomas Banchoff) From: moocow@brown.edu (Lisa Eckstein)
Subject: Flatland review

I found a review of Flatland from the New York Times, Feb. 23, 1885. I found it very amusing. The best line is "It's a very puzzling book and a very distressing one, and to be enjoyed possibly by about six, or at the outside seven, persons in the whole of the United States and Canada." The review is strange in that it gives some very specific details of the story, such as the proposal to paint both women and priests half red and half green, but fails to adequately explain the overall idea of the book, that is, that it takes place in a two-dimensional world. The reviewer did not understand the book at all, it seems: "Some little sense is apparent in an appeal for a better education for women, but beyond that all the rest of Flatland is incomprehensible."

I will give you a copy of the review tomorrow in class, and I would also be willing to type it up for the class page, since it is fairly short. 

I tried to find some other reviews, but periodical indexes for the 1880s are sadly lacking. There is an index for the London Times which goes back that far, and it is in the Rock on microfilm, but unfortunately the film is defective, and 1884 and 1885 are the years that are not available! I wanted to find a review from the Times, but I didn't feel like looking through all the 1884 issues. If you could tell me what month the book was published, I could look through a month or two of films. 

%) Lisa