Its discussion of magical types, the sacrificial killing of kings, the dying god, and the scapegoat is given fresh pertinence in this new edition. Sir James George Frazer developed an affinity for classic literature at a young age, which developed into a very real talent through his schooling at Glasgow University and then Trinity College at Cambridge, where he remained as a Classics Fellow for all but one year of his life. A seminal work of modern anthropolgy, The Golden Bough also influenced many twentieth-century writers, including D H Lawrence, T S Eliot, and Wyndham Lewis. For the first time this one-volume edition restores Frazer’s bolder theories and sets them within the framework of a valuable introduction and notes. He is thought to represent a worldly husband to the goddess Diana. The person who kills him then becomes the new King of the Wood. In it some of the more controversial passages were dropped, including Frazer’s daring speculations on the Crucifixion of Christ. The books title, The Golden Bough, refers to the tradition that states that the King of the Woods must be killed by an escaped slave, hit with a golden bough from a tree that grows there. That abridgement has never been reconsidered for a modern audience. First published in 1890, The Golden Bough was eventually issued in a twelve-volume edition (1906–15) which was abridged in 1922 by the author and his wife. A classic study of the beliefs and institutions of mankind, and the progress through magic and religion to scientific thought, The Golden Bough has a unique status in modern anthropology and literature.
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