Modern Library's is the more elegant, inviting translation, but Wesleyan's has the advantage of including all 150 of the gorgeous woodcuts created for the original French 1870 version.

FORBES: Eerily Prescient

At the request of the provost he taught a class in ancient Greek literature in translation, sympathizing with students who found Thucydides impenetrable: The Modern Library edition has one map of the entire Hellenic world, with 180 labels on it.

FORBES: Homemade Herodotus

While Mr Stora's book (a translation, at times awkward, of three volumes in French) encompasses the whole narrative of modern Algeria, from the first landings of the conquering French, through their ignominious departure and on to Algeria's present agony, Irwin Wall contents himself with just one episode of that narrative: the struggle for independence.

ECONOMIST: Algeria then and now