Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
Encyclopedia
1879 in literature
The year 1879 in literature involved some significant new books.-Events:* The Rabelais Club is founded in London, holding a literary dinner once every two months...
) is one of Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
's earliest published works and is considered a pioneering classic of outdoor literature
Outdoor literature
Outdoor literature is a literature genre about or involving the outdoors. Outdoor literature encompasses several different sub-genres variously called Exploration literature, Adventure literature and Nature literature. These genres can include activities such as exploration, survival, sailing,...
.
Background
Stevenson was in his late 20s and still dependent on his parents for support. Travels was both meant to raise money he needed to be with the woman he loved, and provide the adventure he craved, having been sickly much of his life.Travels recounts Stevenson's 12-day, 120-mile solo hiking
Hiking
Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...
journey through the sparsely populated and impoverished areas of the Cévennes
Cévennes
The Cévennes are a range of mountains in south-central France, covering parts of the départements of Gard, Lozère, Ardèche, and Haute-Loire.The word Cévennes comes from the Gaulish Cebenna, which was Latinized by Julius Caesar to Cevenna...
mountains in south-central France in 1878. The character of Modestine, a stubborn, manipulative donkey
Donkey
The donkey or ass, Equus africanus asinus, is a domesticated member of the Equidae or horse family. The wild ancestor of the donkey is the African Wild Ass, E...
he could never quite get the better of, is memorable. It is one of the earliest accounts which presented hiking and camping
Camping
Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...
outdoors as a recreational activity. It also tells of commissioning one of the first sleeping bag
Sleeping bag
A sleeping bag is a protective "bag" for a person to sleep in, essentially a blanket that can be closed with a zipper or similar means, and functions as a bed in situations where a bed is unavailable . Its primary purpose is to provide warmth and thermal insulation...
s, large and heavy enough to require a donkey to carry.
The Cévennes was the site of a Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
rebellion around 1702, severely suppressed by Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
. The Protestant insurgents, a minority population in the region, were known as the Camisard
Camisard
Camisards were French Protestants of the rugged and isolated Cevennes region of south-central France, who raised an insurrection against the persecutions which followed the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685...
s. Stevenson was well-versed in the history, romantically imagining scenes from the rebellion along the way. He notes that the Catholics and the Protestants, at the time of his travels, lived peaceably but with an absolute divide between the two communities. A young Catholic man who married a Protestant girl and changed his faith in the process was unanimously condemned for this breach of loyalty, an example of the sentiment "change is not good" which pervaded the countryside.
Stevenson himself was Protestant by upbringing, and both the geography of the Cévennes with its barren rocky heather-filled hillsides, and the history of religious strife that lay over the land, were familiar ground for the Scot.
The book appeared the following year, 1879, and is dedicated to his friend Sidney Colvin
Sidney Colvin
Sidney Colvin was an English curator and literary and art critic, part of the illustrious Anglo-Indian Colvin family. He is primarily remembered for his friendship with Robert Louis Stevenson.-Biography:...
, a cultured man who had befriended him when he was still unpublished.
Main parts of the journey
- September 22: Le MonastierLe Monastier-sur-GazeilleLe Monastier-sur-Gazeille is a commune in the Haute-Loire department in south-central France.-External links:*...
- September 23: LangogneLangogneLangogne is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.-External links:* *...
- September 24: Cheylard-l'ÉvêqueCheylard-l'ÉvêqueCheylard-l'Évêque is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.Sagnerousse, which is located on the territory of the commune of Cheylard-l'Évêque, and the village of Cheylard-l'Évêque proper were visited by Robert Louis Stevenson on September 24 and 25, 1878, respectively. They are...
- September 25: LucLuc, LozèreLuc is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.The castle-ruin of Château de Luc is located there.-External links:* *...
- September 25: La Bastide-PuylaurentLa Bastide-PuylaurentLa Bastide-Puylaurent is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.The Trappist monastery Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is located about one and a half miles east of the village, in the Ardèche department.-Geography:...
- September 27: ChasseradèsChasseradèsChasseradès is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.-External links:* *...
, Le BleymardLe BleymardLe Bleymard is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.-Notable people:* Alphonse Magnien , Catholic educator* Henri Rouvière , Professor of anatomy-External links:... - September 29: Le Pont-de-MontvertLe Pont-de-MontvertLe Pont-de-Montvert is a commune in the Lozère département in southern France.It is located in the heart of the Parc National des Cévennes. The inhabitants of Le Pont-de-Montvert are called Pontoises or Montvertipontains.-History:...
, CocurèsCocurèsCocurès is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.-See also:*Communes of the Lozère department... - September 30: FloracFloracFlorac is a commune of the Lozère department in southern France.-Twin towns:Florac is twinned with:* L'Anse-Saint-Jean, Quebec, Canada since 1984* Arbucies, Catalonia, Spain since 1987-References:* -External links:...
- October 2: Saint-Germain-de-CalberteSaint-Germain-de-CalberteSaint-Germain-de-Calberte is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.-References:* *-External links:*...
, Saint-Étienne-Vallée-FrançaiseSaint-Étienne-Vallée-FrançaiseSaint-Étienne-Vallée-Française is a commune in the Lozère department in southern France.-References:* *... - October 3: Saint-Jean-du-GardSaint-Jean-du-GardSaint-Jean-du-Gard is a commune in the Gard department in southern France.-History:This city of the Cévennes, first mentioned in a 12th century papal bull , was very much influenced by Protestantism in the 16th century and became the Mecca of the camisards' resistance.Thanks to the silk industry,...
Today Stevenson fans retrace the route Stevenson took on hiking paths (GR footpath
GR footpath
The Grande Randonnée , Grote Routepaden or Lange-afstand-wandelpaden , Grande Rota or Gran Recorrido is a network of long-distance footpaths in Europe, mostly in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. In France alone, the trails cover approximately 60,000 km...
GR 70), some of which are transhumance
Transhumance
Transhumance is the seasonal movement of people with their livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and to lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Only the herds travel, with...
routes taken annually by shepherds and their flocks. Asked why this "Ecossais veritable" continues to have such an impact on the identity of the people of the Cevennes today, a local politician and historian at St Germain de Calberte told the contemporary Scottish writer, Alastair McIntosh, in 2007, "Because he showed us the landscape that makes us who we are."
In the arts
- In the John SteinbeckJohn SteinbeckJohn Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
novel The Pastures of HeavenThe Pastures of HeavenThe Pastures of Heaven is a short story cycle by John Steinbeck, first published in 1932, consisting of twelve interconnected stories about a valley in Monterey, California, which was discovered by a Spanish corporal while chasing runaway Indian slaves...
, one of the characters regards Stevenson's Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes as one of the single greatest works of English literature and eventually names his infant son Robert Louis. Later on, Steinbeck and his wife Elain were inspired by Stevenson in choosing the title Travels With Charley.
- A section of Richard HolmesRichard Holmes (biographer)Richard Holmes, OBE, FRSL, FBA is a British author and academic best known for his biographical studies of major figures of British and French Romanticism.-Biography:...
' book 'Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer' chronicles the author's retracing of Stevenson's journey.