The Golden Bough Format: Paperback

The landmark study of world myth and culture

Draws on myths, rituals, totems and taboos of ancient European and primitive cultures throughout the world. The third edition of this monumental study of folklore, magic, and religion was abridged by the authour into this single volume in 1922.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

James Frazer was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1854. He died in Cambridge, England, in 1941. Best remembered as the author of the The Golden Bough, Frazer was also an anthropologist, folklorist, and classical scholar. His work was an influence on such notables as Carl Jung, Sigmund Freud, and James Joyce.

George W. Stocking (1928–2013) was a historian of social anthropology, focused on anthropology’s own past, tracing the field of study’s development on two continents. Stocking was the Stein-Freiler Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Chicago. He was the author of After Tylor, The Ethnographer's Magic and Other Essays in the History of Anthropology, and Victorian Anthropology.