We very much hope that this book will be read by the interested student (and not just be parked on a shelf for occasional consultation). If you want a comprehensive reference book on Group Theory, do not buy this text. There are much better books available, some of which are mentioned below. We have a tale to tell; the absolute essentials of the theory of groups, followed by some entertainments and some more advanced material. The theory of groups is an enormous body of material which interacts with other branches of mathematics at countless frontiers. Some parts of the theory are essentially...