Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes

In October 1878 the lovesick Robert Louis Stevenson made a journey across the mountains of the Cevennes in Southern France. His only companion was the resolutely obstinate Modestine, "a diminutive she-ass, not much bigger than a dog". By day he struggled on foot across the ominously beautiful landscape which had once been riven by religious persecution, and slept at night under the stars, in friendly but primitive inns and, once, in a Trappish monastery. As he travelled, Stevenson realized that he had also embarked on a revealing spiritual odyssey that was to change his perception of tolerance, fellowship and human love. This account of the journey is characterized by the author's natural gaiety as a writer, which breaks through his lover's despair.