Abbott's book is a bit dry and hard going at the beginning, during which time he is providing necessary background and orientation to the core story, but what could be tedious listening is wonderfully ameliorated by Ruth Golding's excellent performance. Her intelligent, smooth, and deliberate delivery, soothing vocal resonance, flawless articulation (standard British accent), and restrained but vibrant emotion compelled me to keep listening. By the time she gets to Abbott's main tale, I was rapt, thoroughly in her spell. I don't think I could have gotten as much out of this bizarre mathematical novel by reading it silently as I did having Ms. Golding perform it for me.

One of my all-time favorite stories.

Thank you for this great solo recording. I still remember listening to it in my office during my lunch breaks and that was several years ago.

Thank you Ruth for an excellent reading. The characters of A Square and the Sphere came through beautifully.

The tale itself is part social satire, part mathematical treatise. Both parts are interesting, entertaining and informative.

Abbot's work describes a fantasy world descibed in geometry. It is a notably early work of its sort admired, amongst others, by Isaac Asimov. The satire is clear: Flatland is somewhere that women are 'invisible', the ruling classes have no use for 'feeling', and where irregularity is frowned upon. A lesser echo to this is the one-dimensional 'Lineland', given a smaller section of its own, where vistas and understanding are even more circumscribed, or the extreme limitations of 'Dotland' (the solipsisms of which make up some of the most memorable moments in the book). The book is written by one who has temporarily escaped, after being introduced to the merits of a regular, 3 dimensional universe (or 'Spaceland') by a helpful visitor. The merits of Abbot's book are that it more and more suggests to the reader a open mind towards the perception of things as they appear to be, as well as introducing the notion of a multi-dimensional reality. Reader Ruth Golding is, as usual excellent, dryly ironic when she needs be, with typically clear diction and enunciation. Her choice here makes for a complete contrast to another work of fantasy she has done (and which I can also recommend) Jefferies' 'After London' - swopping the natural world for the mathematical.

This short story is a classic for many math students trying to visualize or at least grasp more than our 3 visible space dimensions (actually 4 dimensions in space-time. This story is overshadowed by a heavy critique of the social and power "cast system" in England along with the position of women at the time (although the satire about women sometimes doesn't sound like satire.)

The reader has a voice I could listen to forever. She could read a cookbook and I would listen. Like Goldilocks said, "it was just right!".

A fascinating and thought-provoking book, masterfully read by Ruth Golding. As good as any commercial audiobook I've heard.

The British-sounding female reader does a good, mostly pretty expressive reading. There are detailed descriptions of all the diagrams and pictures, which is a nice touch. The text itself is explicit enough that I almost felt I didn't need the pictures.