Are there any uncut versions of "The Golden Bough" in print?
This one seems to come up in the who’s who of comparative religion books…but it’s inclusion of Christianity in its analysis led to it getting truncated into a more politically correct, less comprehensive text in the 1920’s. I’m interested in what it has to say about theophagy and there just isn’t much point if Christianity is still being cut out and I really can’t shell out for a first or second edition.
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http://lccn.loc.gov/89036675 – this site describes a 1990 (3rd ed.) published in New York by St. Martin’s Press. The entry says that it comprises 9 volumes in 13. If it is out of print, you can try secondhand and antiquarian booksellers. Another, at AbeBooks, may not be what you want, as it is 2 vol. in 1.
thanks for helping out, and especially for pointing out the gutenberg edition. It looks like the first two printings spawned the 12 volume monster and the author paired it down (including the Christian stuff) for the third edition in 1922 I believe. Apparently Christianity was restored to the Condensed version in 1994, which at 907 pages is good enough for me.
thanks :)
I never knew that Frazer had to remove material. It means that the copy I read in our public library when I was a teenager was probably the third edition. You learn something new every day.
Hmmm…mine says “1 volume abridged edition” and has both a 1922 and a 1950 copyright date. The author’s preface has the 1922 date. I bought it in 1973 and didn’t really realize I was getting less than the full text. It’s only 827 pages plus index.
I haven’t read it through in some years, but I remember plenty of Christian stuff having to do with killing the god, eating the god, sacrifice of the son, and rebirth. Or wait—I am not sure, now, if it referred explicitly to Judaeo-Christian mythology or if the correlations and implications were just so obvious that I took them as givens.
that is awesome! thank you.
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