The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion, James George Frazer, Third ed., 1936, Complete in 12 vols.

Published in London by Macmillan & Co 1936. James George Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ is a landmark work of social anthropology. Drawing on classical sources, ethnography, and folklore Frazer advanced a universalist theory of ritual and myth, particularly the nexus between kingship, sacrifice and fertility. The work has proved hugely influential, not only in the fields of anthropology and ethnography, but also in many fields of art and literature (perhaps most notably in T.S. Eliot’s ‘The Wasteland’) The twelve volume Third Edition was a comprehensive extension of the three volume second and sets out the vast canvas of Frazer’s life’s work.