Part I of this book is a short review of the classical part of representation theory. The main chapters of representation theory are discussed: representations of finite and compact groups, finite- and infinite-dimensional representations of Lie groups. It is a typical feature of this survey that the structure of the theory is carefully exposed - the reader can easily see the essence of the theory without being overwhelmed by details. The final chapter is devoted to the method of orbits for different types of groups. Part II deals with representation of Virasoro and Kac-Moody algebra. The second part of the book deals with representations of Virasoro and Kac-Moody algebra. The wealth of recent results on representations of infinite-dimensional groups is presented.

Translated by: V. Soucek
Contributions by: A.A. Kirillov, Yu.A. Neretin