Clearly and obviously, the 19th century suffered from similar class and gender struggles as today. That someone would have the audacity to write about them cloaked in science fiction that would read well 140 years later? Remarkable. It is slow in parts, but it’s over before you know it. One of very few classics I’ve enjoyed. A weak 5 stars, but 5 stars nonetheless. You should read this.

Highlights:

• “Our Professional Men and Gentlemen are Squares”
• “The occasional emergence of an Equilateral from the ranks of his serf-born ancestors is welcomed, not only by the poor serfs themselves, as a gleam of light and hope shed upon the monotonous squalor of their existence, but also by the Aristocracy at large; for all the higher classes are well aware that these rare phenomena, while they do little or nothing to vulgarize their own privileges, serve as almost useful barrier against revolution from below.”
• “Female, in Flatland, is a creature by no means to be trifled with.”
• “What can it be to run against a Woman, except absolute and immediate destruction?”
• “No female is suffered to stand in any public place without swaying her back from right to left.”
• “The Irregular is from his birth scouted by his own parents, derided by his brothers and sisters, neglected by the domestics, scorned and suspected by society, and excluded from all posts of responsibility, trust, and useful activity.”