A Study in Magic and Religion
In this classic work, inspiration and source book to many, not least T.S. Eliot and Sigmund Freud, Frazer sets out the seminal themes of myth and magic that emerge throughout the history of the human imagination. Themes such as the death of the fisher king, the magical mistletoe sprig and the sacred oak grove are traced through the rituals of ceremony and sacrifice from ancient Greece, through the druid and shaman traditions and the worlds of Oldin and Arthur, to the bedrock of image and symbol that underlies human consciousness.
First published in a mammoth twelve-volume edition in 1915 and later abridged by the author, 'The Golden Bough' was quickly recognised as a unique survey of myth, magic and religion throughout the whole spectrum of world and time. This abridged edition made J.G. Frazer's groundbreaking masterpiece accessible to a much wider audience and has remained a constant bestseller.
