I. The Kodaira Classification of Surfaces.- II. The Topology of Elliptic Surfaces.- III. Definition of the Polynomial Invariants.- IV. Holomorphic Vector Bundles, Stability, and Gauge Theory.- V. Donaldson Polynomials of Algebraic Surfaces.- VI. Big Diffeomorphism Groups and Minimal Models.- VII. Donaldson Polynomials of Elliptic Surfaces.- References.- Index of Notation.