The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion
London: Macmillan and Company, 1890.
First edition, first printing of Frazer's groundbreaking wide-ranging comparative study on mythology and religion. A presentation copy, signed and warmly inscribed to a former owner by James George Frazer on the first blank page of Volume I. Two volumes, bound in publisher's original green cloth with spines lettered in gilt and ornate mistletoe design blocked in gilt on the upper boards, edges uncut. Near Fine with light rubbing to cloth, corners bumped. Hinges a little tender, preliminary and terminal pages foxed. A monumental work in which Frazer set out to define the shared elements of religious belief and scientific though through the lenses of such cultural practices and symbols as fertility rites, human sacrifice, the dying god and the scapegoat. He proposes that mankind progresses from magic through religious believe to scientific though. Item #140941342
Price: $12,500.00