theory, see, for instance, Goresky-MacPherson [GM], Deligne [Del], and Steenbrink [S6]; and (ii) specific topics of great subtlety and beauty, like the study of the funda­ mental group of the complement in [p>2 of a singular plane curve initiated by Zariski or Griffiths' theory relating the rational differential forms to the Hodge filtration on the middle cohomology group of a smooth projec­ tive hypersurface. The aim of this book is precisely to introduce the reader to some topics in this latter class. Most of the results to be discussed, as well as the related notions, are at least two decades old, and specialists use them intensively and freely in their work. Nevertheless, it is impossible to find an adequate intro­ duction to this subject, which gives a good feeling for its relations with other parts of algebraic geometry and topology.