A significantly updated translation of Lichtabsorption und Photochemie Organischer Molekle, published by VCH in 1989. A graduate textbook that provides a qualitative description of electronic excitation in organic molecules and of the associated spectroscopy, photophysics, and photochemistry. The treatment is non- mathematical and emphasizes the use of simple qualitative models for developing an intuitive feeling for the course of photophysical and photochemical processes in terms of potential energy hypersurfaces. Special attention is paid to recent developments, particularly to the role of conical intersections. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.