What is Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes about?

What is Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes about?

Travels recounts Stevenson’s 12-day, 200-kilometre (120 mi) 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 often compared to parts of Scotland.

What is the name of Stevenson’s donkey?

Modestine
Recovering on the French Riviera from a respiratory ailment, Stevenson spent 12 days walking 120 miles from the town of Le Monastier to Saint-Jean-du-Gard in the Cévennes mountain range, accompanied only by his donkey, Modestine.

Where did Robert Louis Stevenson tour on a donkey?

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

What did Robert Louis Stevenson write?

Robert Louis Stevenson was a Scottish essayist, poet, and author of fiction and travel books, best known for his works Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Who wrote Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes?

Robert Louis Stevenson
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes/Authors
The 100 best nonfiction books: No 57 – Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson (1879) Robert Louis Stevenson offers the very rare example of a great writer who excelled in nonfiction as much as fiction. Contemporary critics also puzzled over the character of his greatness.

When was Travels with a Donkey first published?

1879
Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes/Originally published

Who is Modestine?

Answer: 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.

How long is the Robert Louis Stevenson trail?

At 272km, this long-distance trail from Le Puy to Ales is ideal for people new to walking holidays, and promises an interesting journey with an historical and literary flavour.

What inspired RLS to Treasure Island?

Treasure Island is one of the most famous adventure stories in English literature. Book Background: Treasure Island was written by RLS after returning from his first trip to America where we was married. Still a relatively unknown author, inspiration came one summer in Scotland when bad weather kept the family inside.

Where did Stevenson write Treasure Island?

Isla de Pinos near Cuba, which served as a supply base for pirates for about 300 years, is believed to have inspired Treasure Island. Norman Island in the British Virgin Islands was supposedly mentioned to Stevenson by a sailor uncle, and also possesses a “Spyglass Hill” like the fictional Treasure Island.

Who wrote Travels with a Donkey?

The 100 best nonfiction books: No 57 – Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes by Robert Louis Stevenson (1879) Robert Louis Stevenson offers the very rare example of a great writer who excelled in nonfiction as much as fiction.

Where is Cevennes in France?

listen); Occitan: Cevenas) is a cultural region and range of mountains in south-central France, on the south-east edge of the Massif Central. It covers parts of the départements of Ardèche, Gard, Hérault and Lozère.

What is travels with a donkey in the Cévennes?

The foundation of Travels with a Donkey in the Cév The literary trip to the Cévennes in France with Robert Louis Stevenson was a nightmare. I finished the book last evening and hoped it would turn out to be just a bad dream but nope, it still exists.

Why is the female donkey important to Stevenson?

Because Modestine, the female donkey is as important as Stevenson in this travel. Stevenson, like a school teacher would have done, tells us about the Cévennes which were the site of a Protestant rebellion around 1702, severely suppressed by Catholic French king Louis XIV. The Protestant insurgents were known as the Camisards.

How many days did it take to hike the Cévennes mountains?

Robert Louis Stevenson’s account of his 12 day hike through the Cévennes mountains in Southern France, accompanied only by his determined and sometimes stubborn donkey Modestine. The literary trip to the Cévennes in France with Robert Louis Stevenson was a nightmare.

What do you hate about travels with a donkey?

The foundation of Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1879) are three things which I hate, both in literature and life: animal cruelty, aggressive religiousness and mysogynism in neon colours.