The present lectures are based on a course deli vered by the authors at the Uni versi ty of Bucharest, in the winter semester 1985-1986. Without aiming at completeness, the topics selected cover all the major questions concerning hyponormal operators. Our main purpose is to provide the reader with a straightforward access to an active field of research which is strongly related to the spectral and perturbation theories of Hilbert space operators, singular integral equations and scattering theory. We have in view an audience composed especially of experts in operator theory or integral...