title: Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time
author:  Robin Le Poidevin 
description: <br />"A lucid philosophical primer on space and time... unquestionably mind-expanding stuff."-- <em>The Guardian</em>
zlib_text: “Albrecht	Classen’s	Tracing	the	Trails	in	the	Medieval	World	does	for	literature	what
  Albert	Einstein	did	for	physics	with	his	General	Theory	of	Relativity.	Just	as	Einstein
  suggested	that	spacetime	is	curved	by	the	mass	and	acceleration	of	physical	bodies
  and	their	gravitational	forces,	Classen	allows	us	to	see	the	constellation	that	we	call
  the	 Middle	 Ages	 as	 an	 event	 carved	 out	 of	 spacetime	 by	 authorial	 agencies	 and
  literary	forces,	enduring	for	a	thousand	years,	and	still	affecting	the	ways	in	which	we
  understand	our	present	and	our	future.	Focused	on	accounts	of	travel,	journeys	and
  movements	in	real	and	imagined	spaces,	by	authors	and	fictional	characters,	the	book
  establishes	the	primacy	of	stepping	forth	and	venturing	out,	as	the	acts	by	which	the
  world	and	the	traveler	come	into	being.	Ontology	and	epistemology,	in	that	way,	are
  posited	as	effects	of	the	kinetics	and	the	serendipitous	meanderings	that	make	them
  possible	in	the	first	place.	The	four	dimensions	of	s