Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes

Travels with a Donkey describes Stevenson’s hiking trip in the Cevennes, in South-Central France.

The narrative largely focuses on Stevenson’s humorous descriptions of his stubborn travel companion. In twelve days, from September 22, 1878, until October 3, 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson walked from Le Monastier to St. Jean du Gard in the Cevennes.

His only companion was Modestine, a donkey. Stevenson bought Modestine to carry his belongings for the journey. However, Modestine walks so slowly that Stevenson decides to sell her. He traveled as his fancy led him, stopping to sleep whenever occasion offered.

In his travels, Stevenson visits the monastery Lady of the Snows where a country parish priest and an old soldier are horrified to find that Stevenson is a heretic. He also makes observations about French life, religion and politics throughout the work.

At the end of his book, he describes the selling of Modestine.

“For twelve days we had been fast companions; we had traveled upwards of a hundred and twenty miles, crossed several respectable ridges, and jogged along with our six legs by many a rocky and many a boggy by-road. After the first day, although sometimes I was hurt and distant in manner, I still kept my patience; and as for her, poor soul! she had come to regard me as a god. She loved to eat out of my hand. She was patient, elegant in form, the colour of an ideal mouse, and inimitably small. Her faults were those of her race and sex; her virtues were her own. Farewell, and if for ever.”

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