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The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion
Authors and Contributors      By (author) J.G. Frazer
Introduction by Cairns Craig
SeriesCanongate Classics
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:944
Dimensions(mm): Height 196,Width 126
ISBN/Barcode 9781841954325
ClassificationsDewey:291.13
Audience
General
Edition Main

Publishing Details

Publisher Canongate Books Ltd
Imprint Canongate Classics
Publication Date 24 May 2004
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

Published originally in two volumes in 1890, this extraordinary study of primitive myth and magic, collected from sources around the world, led Frazer to identify parallel patterns of ritual, symbols and belief across many centuries and many different cultures. Frazer's learning inspired a whole generation of ethnographers and comparative anthropologists, and had a particularly powerful effect on many other thinkers and writers such as Sigmund Freud, D.H. Lawrence, Joyce, Yeats and T.S. Eliot.

Author Biography

J.G. Frazer (1854-1941) was born and educated in Glasgow, where he attended the University before going to Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1871 he became a Classics Fellow at Trinity. He was knighted in 1914. He translated work from Greek and wrote fiction, but he is best known as a pioneer of social anthropology and comparative ethnography. Although he has many other titles to his name, none were to have the wide-ranging social and imaginative impact of The Golden Bough (first published in 1890).

Reviews

* Frazer's work has epic scale yet mesmerizing fineness of detail. We see the great structures of civilization forming and melting against a background of elemental mystery. The effect is cinematic and sublime. What I took from Frazer is his narrative sweep, multicultural sympathy and structuralist technique ... The Golden Bough is like music - the dark resonance of Johannes Brahms' four symphonies, which inspired my "reading" of Western culture and its recurrent themes. -- Camille Paglia * Equally remarkable for its vast assembly of facts and its unusual charm of presentation. Few men of such learning have written more attractively. Concise Cambridge History of English Literature