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Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes: Original Classics and Annotated
A Collection of Classic Travel Memoirs by Robert Louis Stevenson
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes and Other Travel Writings is a fascinating collection of travel memoirs by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published between 1878 and 1915, in the UK.
An anthology of his best-known travelogue works, Stevenson’s fascinating and endearing memoirs provide some of the earliest accounts of travel, hiking and camping outdoors for recreation.
Excerpt
‘For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more clearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints. Alas, as we get up in life, and are more preoccupied with our affairs, even a holiday is a thing that must be worked for. To hold a pack upon a pack-saddle against a gale out of the freezing north is no high industry, but it is one that serves to occupy and compose the mind. And when the present is so exacting who can annoy himself about the future?’
Synopsis
A collection of travel writings by celebrated Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson showing his development as a writer, and as a pioneer of travelogue writing in particular, over a period of nearly 40 years. This edition includes the following works: An Inland Voyage (1878), Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), Essays of Travel (1905), and Across the Plains (1915).
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes and Other Travel Writings is a fascinating collection of travel memoirs by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, first published between 1878 and 1915, in the UK.
An anthology of his best-known travelogue works, Stevenson’s fascinating and endearing memoirs provide some of the earliest accounts of travel, hiking and camping outdoors for recreation.
Excerpt
‘For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more clearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints. Alas, as we get up in life, and are more preoccupied with our affairs, even a holiday is a thing that must be worked for. To hold a pack upon a pack-saddle against a gale out of the freezing north is no high industry, but it is one that serves to occupy and compose the mind. And when the present is so exacting who can annoy himself about the future?’
Synopsis
A collection of travel writings by celebrated Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson showing his development as a writer, and as a pioneer of travelogue writing in particular, over a period of nearly 40 years. This edition includes the following works: An Inland Voyage (1878), Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879), Essays of Travel (1905), and Across the Plains (1915).
136 pages, Paperback
Published January 4, 2021
36 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson
6,894 books6,955 followersRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
May 16, 2022
A travelogue from a very different time and place. I very much admire the work of Stevenson, and had never read this one.
December 1, 2020
A flavour of footsteps past
The Cévennes was relatively unknown when RLS set off on his journey, spanning just a couple of weeks in the Autumn of 1878, having acquired a donkey - Modestine - to carry the burden of all his gear. She takes some getting used to and he can appreciate her handsome features but he really does struggle to warm to her. His gear heads eathwards more often than not.
This is a gentle story full of observation and detail of his journeys. He meets innumerable people along the way and describes the food he encounters. It is full of wry observations, frustrations and, yes, a little humour
It is firmly and vividly set in its era, you will learn what the word athwart means (from side to side) and a whang (of bread, which I rather like as a term!).
This is a particularly nice read if you are heading for the area and want to get a sense of footsteps past and a flavour of life as it was at the end of the 19th Century.
The Cévennes was relatively unknown when RLS set off on his journey, spanning just a couple of weeks in the Autumn of 1878, having acquired a donkey - Modestine - to carry the burden of all his gear. She takes some getting used to and he can appreciate her handsome features but he really does struggle to warm to her. His gear heads eathwards more often than not.
This is a gentle story full of observation and detail of his journeys. He meets innumerable people along the way and describes the food he encounters. It is full of wry observations, frustrations and, yes, a little humour
It is firmly and vividly set in its era, you will learn what the word athwart means (from side to side) and a whang (of bread, which I rather like as a term!).
This is a particularly nice read if you are heading for the area and want to get a sense of footsteps past and a flavour of life as it was at the end of the 19th Century.
December 10, 2024
A pleasant and easy read, well written, but to be honest all a little dull and not quite the piece I was expecting after hearing rave reviews. There are some wonderful passages, but not enough. I'd put this into the non-challenging holiday reading category.
I am reviewing the Dover Thrift edition, which contains 3 of Stevenson's early works, all non fiction and involving his travels mostly in France, or in countries nearby. All written prior to his more famous fictional works, though he remained someone who loved to travel for much of his life.
The first is "An Inland Voyage" about his travels by canoe around rivers and canals in Belgium and France. Written in a jaunty tone that reminded me of Jerome K Jerome a little. The second is the better known "Travels with a donkey in the Cévennes". A gentle read, but I found much less interesting that I expected. Each of these pieces is about 100 pages long. The final piece, a short early essay called "Forest Notes" is a eulogy to the Forests around Fountainbleau. Nice enough, but I found it a bit odd. Smattered throughout all the pieces are cultural and historical observations, along with a few insights.
A trio of observations. Stevenson was obviously quite tough physically. Nowadays these might sound like trivial journeys. In those days they were not and they entailed some physical hardship. He also spoke good French. Finally, although some of his comments might raise an eyebrow nowadays, mostly he comes across as a sensible, reasonable person with the ability to make charming and sometimes wise insights.
One thing I found interesting was his reference several times to being English. Stevenson was a proud Scotsman, but not embarrassed to call himself English at times. This blurring of the use of the word "English" for both the people from England and as a collective name for the British is a mistake often made by foreigners to the British Isles. Nowadays call a Scots, Welsh or Irish person "English" you are (rightly) going to be corrected, and sometimes quite forcefully corrected. We may all be British, (though that in itself is disputed), but we are certainly not all English. It's interesting that he was less sensitive to this differentiation. Times change.
I am reviewing the Dover Thrift edition, which contains 3 of Stevenson's early works, all non fiction and involving his travels mostly in France, or in countries nearby. All written prior to his more famous fictional works, though he remained someone who loved to travel for much of his life.
The first is "An Inland Voyage" about his travels by canoe around rivers and canals in Belgium and France. Written in a jaunty tone that reminded me of Jerome K Jerome a little. The second is the better known "Travels with a donkey in the Cévennes". A gentle read, but I found much less interesting that I expected. Each of these pieces is about 100 pages long. The final piece, a short early essay called "Forest Notes" is a eulogy to the Forests around Fountainbleau. Nice enough, but I found it a bit odd. Smattered throughout all the pieces are cultural and historical observations, along with a few insights.
A trio of observations. Stevenson was obviously quite tough physically. Nowadays these might sound like trivial journeys. In those days they were not and they entailed some physical hardship. He also spoke good French. Finally, although some of his comments might raise an eyebrow nowadays, mostly he comes across as a sensible, reasonable person with the ability to make charming and sometimes wise insights.
One thing I found interesting was his reference several times to being English. Stevenson was a proud Scotsman, but not embarrassed to call himself English at times. This blurring of the use of the word "English" for both the people from England and as a collective name for the British is a mistake often made by foreigners to the British Isles. Nowadays call a Scots, Welsh or Irish person "English" you are (rightly) going to be corrected, and sometimes quite forcefully corrected. We may all be British, (though that in itself is disputed), but we are certainly not all English. It's interesting that he was less sensitive to this differentiation. Times change.
August 4, 2007
Viva Modestine! I should read more of Stevenson's travelogues. This one was a charmer, in no small part because of Stevenson's nonpareil prose.
December 27, 2019
Imagine Henry David Thoreau wandering France instead of the Maine woods, and in the company of a gentle beast of burden. That gets you close to Robert Louis Stevenson and his Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. It was a stroll of some 120 miles with more than he could alone carry: “What I required was something cheap and small and hardy, and of a stolid and peaceful temper; and all these requisites pointed to a donkey.” (p. 18) Travels with a Donkey preceded Treasure Island and Kidnapped and made Stevenson popular. In some ways it reads as an exercise in descriptive writing, but it is mostly a charming account of walk in 1878. Not surprising for a man who would subsequently find himself in the South Pacific, Stevenson confesses: “I have been after an adventure all my life, a pure dispassionate adventure such as befell early and heroic voyagers….” (p. 58) Fortunately he lived in a time when such romantic notions could be satisfied. He and John Muir shared more than the same temporal space. “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move….” (p. 64)
If you have a hint of wanderlust in your bones, Travels with a Donkey will make you want to book a flight to Paris and catch the train to Le Puy-en-Velay. Fortunately, you can do this. And once there, embark upon the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail, aka Grande Randonnée 70.
If you have a hint of wanderlust in your bones, Travels with a Donkey will make you want to book a flight to Paris and catch the train to Le Puy-en-Velay. Fortunately, you can do this. And once there, embark upon the Robert Louis Stevenson Trail, aka Grande Randonnée 70.
June 24, 2023
This book is for lovers of high quality late 19th century writing. I found this book a joy to read and read it both slowly and in small chunks in order to savor the elegant writing and also to appreciate it more fully. The writing gives accurate and highly detailed descriptions while at the same time managing to be poetic and lyrical. A bonus is the historical aspect of the places described; another is the insightful descriptions of characters he meets on his journeys.
September 28, 2024
RLS was an old soul and his candidly flourishing language nourishes my soul.
I read it in such small sets of time so to read parts of it aloud to my non ambulatory friends who raved about the words and pictures he painted with words.
I read it in such small sets of time so to read parts of it aloud to my non ambulatory friends who raved about the words and pictures he painted with words.
April 30, 2020
Wonderful little thing, especially the first 2 thirds.
Just pleasure.
Just pleasure.
April 29, 2021
I love this book. You can feel the emerging genius of RLS
April 3, 2022
Beautifully written travel diary, a pleasant surprise and worth trying.
June 19, 2024
delightful travel book about a little known area of France
May 31, 2022
Donkey in the city
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2022
A Surprising Adventure
I got this book, because I'm absolutely unfamiliar with Robert Louis Stevenson's writing from life. A quote from this piece was mentioned during my Literature studies.
Being fascinated by the rhythm of his writing in that quote, I grabbed this Kindle version right away.
It is an honest, enriching experience. I am glad Mr Stevenson had decided to share it with us.
Still, the topics covered are sometimes awkwardly positioned in time and space. What I mean is (without quoting, so I don't spoil) that sometimes the author is distracted himself, he seems to forget what the specifics of his interlocutors are, so he makes them go around, like fictional characters, and do as he would imagine them. He was not, however, adequately prepared to have a realistic imagination.
This is just my 2 pence.
I got this book, because I'm absolutely unfamiliar with Robert Louis Stevenson's writing from life. A quote from this piece was mentioned during my Literature studies.
Being fascinated by the rhythm of his writing in that quote, I grabbed this Kindle version right away.
It is an honest, enriching experience. I am glad Mr Stevenson had decided to share it with us.
Still, the topics covered are sometimes awkwardly positioned in time and space. What I mean is (without quoting, so I don't spoil) that sometimes the author is distracted himself, he seems to forget what the specifics of his interlocutors are, so he makes them go around, like fictional characters, and do as he would imagine them. He was not, however, adequately prepared to have a realistic imagination.
This is just my 2 pence.
July 25, 2021
This is a delightful collection of a young RL Stevenson's travel writings, before the novels, before his Garden of Verse. I read it in bite-sized pieces, a chapter a day from Antwerp into northern France, and then across the Cevennes mountains and remote villages of central France. Each chapter was an essay on the days activities that revealed occasional glimpses of Stevenson the protestant and UK patriot. His descriptions of the countryside, the people he meets, the churches and villages are full of wonder and rich imagery. It was fun considering the contrasts between his world and own.
September 16, 2020
Exactly what it purports to be. Bit light on detail, but still a fun read.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews