Jean Michel Rakotoson is retired from the Université de Poitiers, where he was a full professor in mathematics. He essentially taught analysis and topology, in Poitiers and a number of other universities in France, namely Nantes, Lyon and Paris XI (Orsay). He was a visiting professor at Indiana University at Bloomington, USA, the University of Naples in Italy, and the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Spain, where he held short courses for graduate students. His book is partly based on a master's course held around 1990 at the Université de Poitiers, but it also contains some of the author's research.