Includes bibliographical references (p. 321-326) and index.

1. Plane curves -- 2. Manifolds and varieties via sheaves -- 3. More sheaf theory -- 4. Sheaf cohomology -- 5. De Rham cohomology of manifolds -- 6. Riemann surfaces -- 7. Simplicial methods -- 8. The Hodge theorem for Riemannian manifolds -- 9. Toward Hodge theory for complex manifolds -- 10. Kähler manifolds -- 11. A little algebraic surface theory -- 12. Hodge structures and homological methods -- 13. Topology of families -- 14. The hard Lefschetz theorem -- 15. Coherent sheaves -- 16. Cohomology of coherent sheaves -- 17. Computation of some Hodge numbers -- 18. Deformations and Hodge theory -- 19. Analogies and conjectures.