This book is veritable attic full of folklore and ritual. But, like an attic, it is sometimes dusty and overstuffed. First published in 1922 and hardly out of print since, the author states it began as a study of a curious practice in a grove near Nemi, Italy in classical times of the killing of a local divine wood king/priest by his successor. His studies lead him to research one thing after another, which eventually became a multi-volume treatise on many of the ritual and folk practices of the world, especially in regards to gods of trees, vegetation and grain, and other resurrection myths.
At times it is a difficult read as the author does not have the current sense of treating other cultures as different, rather than "lesser", than ours, but despite repeated references to "savages" he presents practices and customs rather fairly and non-judgementally. It's only fault lies in it's length, perhaps, though this may be attributed to modern short attention spans, though it does seem to provide so many examples of a practice that I often thought five examples would have sufficed where he used twenty or more.
A curious thing, when I read this any shred of belief I might have had left in the Christ mythos was shattered with the detailed descriptions of other gods of resurrection. Undoubtedly without meaning to, Frazer presents such a clear picture of the rites and myths concerning Adonis, Attis, Osiris, among others, that you realize how little of the Christ myth (if anything) is original. This, of course, is not to disparage Christian believers, as my gods come as much out of myth as theirs, and so it is just as valid, but even when one has been a pagan as long as I have, there still remains some shred, I think, of a person that wonders if the original religion of our childhood might not be valid.
In any case, this is a long and interesting read. I originally picked it up after encountering numerous references in other pagan texts over the years to "Frazer's theory of the Divine King", etc., and finally wanted to read the work for myself. I don't regret it, and I don't think you will either, if you approach this book with patience when you have some time to devote to it.
I got this book a long time ago when I was heavily into HP Lovecraft. Something about HPL's writing strikes a chord - even though it's cheesy, something about it feels TRUE, and that's scary ... so I started chasing down his sources, to read what he had read, in order to make sense of the feelings his writing evokes. The Golden Bough was the first one I found, probably because it is still widely available and can be found in most bookstores. HPL always put it on his doomed occultist characters' bookshelves alongside the Necronomicon, "The Witch Cult in Western Europe" (which does exist and can be bought here at Amazon!), and the "Unausprechlichen Kulten" of Von Juntz.
In the "Golden Bough" Sir Frazer takes the basic premise of explaining the strange rite of succession of the priest at Nemi, and uses it as a launch-pad to go into a long, drawn-out discussion of the roots of magic and superstition, and how so-called "primitive" beliefs have been common to all cultures in a certain stage of their development, all over the world.
The subject matter is fascinating, but Frazer's writing style is very dry, very British, very turn-of-the-(20th)century academic ... and he rambles. Some chapters he seems to be lost on a sidetrack, distracted by the unending cascade of interesting facts and anecdotes, but ultimately he returns to the main idea just when you thought he had lost it forever. The contrast between the "holy crap" amazement of what he's telling you and the soothing, hypnotic monotone of his written voice actually gives me a strangely pleasant tingling sensation along my spine after about 15 minutes of reading.
Of course I don't expect everyone (or anyone at all, for that matter) to have such a visceral reaction, but most readers with any interest in the shadowy depths of human thought and spirituality will enjoy this book immensely.
