In this book, Miranda takes the approach that algebraic curves are best encountered for the first time over the complex numbers, where the reader''s classical intuition about surfaces, integration, and other concepts can be brought into play. Therefore, many examples of algebraic curves are presented in the first chapters. In this way, the book begins as a primer on Riemann surfaces, with complex charts and meromorphic functions taking center stage. But the main examples come from projective curves, and slowly but surely the text moves toward the algebraic category. Proofs of the Riemann- Roch and Serre Duality Theorems are presented in an algebraic manner, via an adaptation of the adelic proof, expressed completely in terms of solving a Mittag-Leffler problem. Sheaves and cohomology are introduced as a unifying device in the latter chapters, so that their utility and naturalness are immediately obvious. Requiring a background of one semester of complex variable theory and a year of abstract algebra, this is an excellent graduate textbook for a second-semester course in complex variables or a year-long course in algebraic geometry.

Riemann surfaces: Basic definitions
Functions and maps
More examples of Riemann surfaces
Integration on Riemann surfaces
Divisors and meromorphic functions
Algebraic curves and the Riemann-Roch theorem
Applications of Riemann-Roch
Abel's theorem
Sheaves and Cech cohomology
Algebraic sheaves
Invertible sheaves, line bundles, and H¹
References
Index of notation
Index of terminology