The Golden Bough

The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion is a
wide-ranging comparative study of mythology and religion, written by Scottish
anthropologist Sir James George Frazer (1854–1941). It was first published in
two volumes in 1890; the third edition, published 1906–15, comprised twelve
volumes. It was aimed at a broad literate audience raised on tales as told in
such publications as Thomas Bulfinch's The Age of Fable, or Stories of Gods and
Heroes (1855). It offered a modernist approach to discussing religion, treating
it dispassionately as a cultural phenomenon rather than from a theological
perspective. The impact of The Golden Bough on contemporary European literature
was substantial.

— Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.