Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes (1879)

> Robert-Louis Stevenson Voyage avec un âne à travers les Cévennes. Préface d’André Chamson. Traduction de Gilbert Lhomme. Aubenas, Racines d’Oc, 1973, 196 p.
Se reporter au compte rendu de Philippe PIGELET
In: Ethnologie française, nouvelle serie, T. 4, No. 4 (1974), p. 404… ; (en ligne),
URL : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xsfuwQaYhm_bGxLL9U3HTitbx4TeIfyZ/view?usp=shari...

A good book by Stevenson. It is a fictional travelogue that borders on the sentimentally dramatic. All in all, a good effort and a solid novel. ( )

Fairly early in his career, Robert Louis Stevenson published a travel narrative about a two-week hiking trip through the mountains in central France. I love animals, so I was disappointed that the donkey wasn't featured as prominently as the title led me to believe. In fact, Stevenson only reluctantly accepted the need for a donkey to carry the equipment he thought was necessary for his journey. Stevenson's writing didn't persuade me to plan a trip to the Cevennes. I was most interested in the history of the religious wars in this region between Protestants and Catholics. ( )

A bit of a yawner here......started out almost OK and got progressively worse in my book. This is likely an autobiographical smaller work about Stevenson walking thru the mountains of France as an Englishman with a recently purchased donkey he named Modestine. He has apparently no experience with an animal of this ilk and struggles to get his gear in order and the animal to abide. Not totally sure what the purpose of his journey is, other than to contemplate and commune with nature.....under the stars......and in dirty inadequate inns......(yawn - excuse me!). Once the 2 of them find their groove, we go on an on about the scenery......(many chestnut trees in this part of France, apparently).....the steepness of the trails ....(one might expect on a mountain journey).......and the seeming brutal wars fought in the 1700's between the Protestants and the Catholics......I mean with names and dates and tactics and on and on and on......(yawn.....my goodness, I'm sorry!!). None of the history is anything i have any knowledge of, nor do i have any idea where in France he was, because most of the locales, etc. were in French. And then, we reach the chapter entitled 'The Last Day'.....and he gets on a stage and leave Modestine behind......not sure why, but there you have it. Definitely proceed with caution, unless you are a student of what apparently was an unpleasant time to be in the mountains of France with religious unrest. ( )

This is one of RLS's earliest published works, relating 12 days spent walking through remote southern France, with, of course, a donkey.
Although he doesn't explicitly state why he chose this area for his tramp, it becomes clear in the telling that the link to the suppression of protestants in the area in the early 1700s is a key factor. As a Scottish protestant, I would guess that RLS was fed tales of his fellow protestants fighting the good fight against the papists.
However the historical trigger does not really impact on the tone of the short work - which is more along the lines of Thoreau than a polemic.
Read Nov 2015 ( )