Introductory references for Morse theory

Question

In view of my master's thesis, I have to learn the basics of Morse theory (defining the morse complex, showing that Morse homology is isomorphic to singular homology...)

I have been told that Milnor's books about Morse theory and the h-cobordism theorem could be a good place to start looking. What are your opinions about these books? And what are possible alternatives?

Answer 1

Here is a list of books which I like (other than Milnor, of course):

• Morse Theory and Floer Homology, Audin, Michèle, Damian, Mihai

• An Introduction to Morse Theory (Translations of Mathematical Monographs, Vol. 208), Yukio Matsumoto

• An Invitation to Morse Theory, Nicolaescu, Liviu

Answer 2

The recommendations above are very nice. I would like to add the following paper by Joa Weber

http://arxiv.org/abs/math/0411465

It is not a book, but it is a very nice exposition of the Morse complex. He shows the basic results of the theory through dynamical systems methods.