Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes
1879
One of the first great travel books in English, this is Robert Louis Stevenson at his most personal and surprising. Before he wrote Treasure Island or Jekyll and Hyde, the young writer set out on foot across the wild Cevennes mountains with nothing but a borrowed tent and a stubborn donkey named Modestine, who would consistently refuse to move at the most inconvenient moments. What follows is a luminous account of a twelve-day, 120-mile journey through rural France, where the greatest adventure turns out to be learning to travel slowly. Stevenson records his frustrations with Modestine, his encounters with hospitable strangers, and his own thoughts on solitude, companionship, and the strange pleasure of putting one foot in front of the other. The writing fizzes with humor and self-deprecation, revealing a different kind of hero than his famous fiction: a man learning patience, paying close attention to the world, and discovering that the journey matters more than the destination. It remains a foundational text of outdoor literature and a proof that you don't need danger to have adventure.
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“I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.””
— Robert Louis Stevenson
“For some thoughts, which sure would be the most beautiful, vanish before we can rightly scan their features; as though a god, travelling by our green highways, should but ope the door, give one smiling look into the house, and go again for ever. ””
— Robert Louis Stevenson
“I was once more face to face with the big bonfire that occupies the kernel of our system.””
— Robert Louis Stevenson
“baldric; but he made a remark that seems worthy of record. ””
— Robert Louis Stevenson
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Stevenson, Robert Louis. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. Lex, lex-books.com/book/travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-25a325e7-0523-43bd-9c08-06b4fa00e0af.Stevenson, R. L. (1879). Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-25a325e7-0523-43bd-9c08-06b4fa00e0afStevenson, Robert Louis. Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-25a325e7-0523-43bd-9c08-06b4fa00e0af.
