Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson's first published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature.
Stevenson was in his late 20s and still dependent on his parents for support. His journey was designed to provide material for publication while allowing him to distance himself from a love affair with an American woman of which his friends and families did not approve and who had returned to her husband in California.
Travels recounts Stevenson's 12-day, 120-mile solo hiking journey through the sparsely populated and impoverished areas of the Cévennes mountains in south-central France in 1878. The terrain with its barren rocky heather-filled hillsides he fotened compared to parts of Scotland. The other principal character is Modestine, a stubborn, manipulative donkey he could never quite master. It is one of the earliest accounts to present hiking and camping outdoors as a recreational activity. It also tells of commissioning one of the first sleeping bags, large and heavy enough to require a donkey to carry.
This edition has been formatted for your reader, with an active table of contents. It also contains illustrations and annotations, with additional information about the novel as well as Robert Louis Stevenson, including an overview, background, itinerary information, information about the Stevenson trail, references in the arts, and biographical and bibliographical information about the author.
