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Prof. Khelemskiĭ's monograph appeared 18 years after and followed the subject of the other monographs of I. M. Gel'fand, D. A. Raikov, G. E. Shilov (1960), C. E. Rickart (1960), M. A. Nai'mark (1968) and F. F. Bonsall, J. Duncan (1973) dedicated to Banach algebras theory and of their generalizations. Initiated by I. M. Gel'fand in 1939, this theory constitutes today a field with large implications in functional analysis, with many applications in analysis and topology (46 H-L in MSC classification). The author realizes by this book an introduction in this domain in which classical results in their up-dated form, such as the theory of commutative Banach algebras, coexist however with the modern aspects of the theory, such as Banach modules and homology, and give an image of the today directions of its development. So, it is addressed to students and researchers in functional analysis, algebra and topology. In this idea, the book starts with reminders from functional analysis, topology, category theory; the seminormed, normed and polynormed (locally convex) spaces are defined, the basic principles of the operators theory are given, the remarkable classes of operators on Banach and Hilbert spaces are studied; also, the topological complement for subspaces of polynormed spaces are defined and the remarkable examples of subspaces without topological complement are given \((c_0\) in \(c_b\) f.e.). After a section dedicated to some elements of category theory follows a large section dedicated to the study of tensor products including the algebraic tensor product with their universality property, projective tensor product of seminorms on algebraic tensor product of seminormed spaces, Banach tensor product with applications to tensor product in \(L^ 1(.)\) (the Grothendieck's theorem is given), tensor product of operators with applications in the weak tensor product, inductive and projective tensor products of polynormed spaces. The introductive chapter finishes with a section dedicated to complexes and their homology. The second chapter gives the basic notions and first results of the theory: the complex associative algebras (homomorphisms, characters and representations, unities, rational functions on such algebras). Banach algebras and other species of polynormed algebras (multiplicative and Arens-Michael algebras), constructions over polynormed algebras (tensor product, unitalisation, approximative unity, the group of invertible elements with their topological properties), ideals, factor algebras, radical and semisimplicity for polynormed algebras. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the spectral theory of algebras. After a first section where the spectrum for the elements of an algebra is defined, the results related to the triviality and compactity of spectrum and Gel'fand Mazur theorem is given, the spectral radius, the radical and the holomorphic calculus for polynormed algebras are defined. The condition of existence \((Sp_A(a)\subset U)\) and of unicity (the Hausdorff separation) for holomorphic calculus associated to the domain \(U\) of \(\mathbb C\) and of \(a\in A\), Gel'fand theorem of representation of holomorphic calculus are given. Chapter 3 adds to the basic examples presented in the previous chapters a main stock of examples which play an important role in operator theory, harmonic analysis, function theory, quantum mechanics etc. So, for a completely regular (Tikhonov) space \(\Omega\), the multinormed algebras \(C(\Omega)\) (of all continuous functions on \(\Omega\) with compact open system of seminorms), \(C_b(\Omega)\) (of all bounded continuous functions on \(\Omega\) with uniform norm), the functional and Banach functional algebras are defined. If \(\Omega\) is locally compact, the Banach algebra \(C_0(\Omega)\), closed ideals of \(C_b(\Omega)\) are presented. For \(\Omega\) a differential manifold with boundary, the algebras of differentiable functions \(C^n(\Omega)\), \(C^{\infty}(\Omega)\) are defined. The algebras of holomorphic functions, the operator and group algebras are defined. Chapter 4 is dedicated to the study of the classical part of the theory (Gel'fand theory of commutative Banach algebras, GNS-theory of star, hermitian and \(C^*\)-algebras) which, from an historical point of view, represents the central kernel of this domain of functional analysis. Continuing these ideas, this study is followed by the study from Chapter 5 about a class of multinormed algebras called ``algebras near Banach algebras'' to which they follow by complexity degree: Arens-Michael algebras (complete, Hausdorff multiplicative algebras) and another algebra with additional structure. Chapter 6 has two purposes. The first is a considerable amplification of the reverse of results about the representations, in principal the irreducibility problem. The second is the introduction of a new mathematical structure, important in itself, namely that of Banach and polynormed modules; the connection with representations, irreducibility and tensor product is given. Finally, Chapter 7 presents: projective, injective and flat modules; contractable, biprojective and amenable algebras; cohomology groups with applications to derivations, automorphisms and extensions, derived functors and Ext, their connections with cohomology; homological dimensions. Concluding, the reviewer's opinion is that this book is a success in the domain. It is remarkable by the richness of information, the modality of selection and of its presentation, the rigour, clarity and, in the same time, the charming style of this presentation.