One of the world's leading experts on global inequality tells the fascinating story of wealth and poverty through the ages in a series of short, quirky vignettes. Inequality is a surprisingly slippery issue because it involves not just straight comparisons of, say, two individuals, but has to account for price and consumption differences around the world and over time and begs questions like what exactly one ought to compare. Branko Milanovic, lead economist at the World Bank's research division, cracked many of these problems in his research and his subsequent book, ''Worlds Apart''. Now, Milanovic is approaching the issues of wealth of poverty in a wholly new way: through stories. Milanovic will analyse questions like: In ''Pride and Prejudice'', how rich was Elizabeth Bennett's suitor, Mr. Darcy, really? How does being really rich in the Roman Empire (Nero) compare to today's super rich (Paris Hilton)? Just who are the richest people today? How should we think about Marxism and socialism and their failures? Why did Marx think the wrong way about poverty? How does location matter to how rich you are and how rich your children are likely to be?Also included is a lead essay on how to think about inequality, and a concluding one on why inequality matters (and what-if anything - we should do about it).