What is the genus? (Q737329)

The book under review is an enlarged version of an article of the author, originally in French, published in [in: Histoires de mathématiques. Journées Mathématiques X-UPS 2011. Palaiseau: Les Éditions de l'École Polytechnique. 55--196 (2012; Zbl 1256.01001)]. The genus (of a compact, connected, orientable, unbordered surface) is defined as the maximal number of pairwise disjoint circles one can draw on the surface, with connected complement. The goal of the book is to explain the origin of the concept, and its relevance. So the contents are divided into three parts, which contain a lot of short chapters. The first part is called Algebraic Curves, and it starts from Déscartes. In this frame, the genus is the measure of the complexity of algebraic curves and topological surfaces. Part II deals with Algebraic Surfaces, from Riemann. Finally, Part III, denoted as Higher Dimensions, begins with the work by Hilbert on hypersurfaces in a projective space of arbitrary dimension. The author collects many viewpoints related with the evolution of the concept of genus, and includes a lot of very useful excerpts of the original writings of a number of great mathematicians.