Beyond the colorful, odorous, and variously shaped world that surrounds us, there exists another world, the molecular; unknown to most—indeed, to some extent, even to the chemists themselves.

Small molecules with admirable functions, large molecules with impressive architecture, paradoxical combinations of atoms—all these constitute the hidden world on a molecular level: it is one side of the natural, organic compounds that make up the living world. On the other side are the far more numerous synthetic molecules: some mimicking natural molecules and others original, some the result of fine design and others random products of unexpected reactions, with desirable properties that make them useful in various applications.

A glimpse of this wonderful microcosm aims to be conveyed by the book you hold in your hands. The Portraits of Organic Compounds focuses on about 1,000 compounds that exhibit particular interest in terms of chemical structure, as well as regarding their naming.

The purpose of the book is to present, in a concise and comprehensible manner, selected compounds, emphasizing those that have been recently discovered or new properties and applications of compounds that have been known for a long time. For practical reasons, most organic compounds that appear in textbooks are omitted.