About the Book
Robert Louis Stevenson, born in 1850 in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom and died in 1894 (at age 44) in Vailima, Upolu, Samoa (South Pacific Ocean). Scottish, Citizen of the United Kingdom He is a travel writer, novels, poems, essays, music, adventure novels and fantastic stories for teenagers. His works include: Treasure Island (1883), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Journey with a donkey in the Cevennes (1879), The Master of Ballantrae (1889), Veillées des Îles (1893). He is a prolific writer. His works are counted by ten. His style is marked by the multiplication of narrators. Fragile health and chaotic schooling, he still received the title of lawyer without ever exercising. He is a great traveler. He visited France, Belgium, Italy, Italy, Austria, Germany, Australia and the Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. In 1876, Stevenson met his future wife Fanny, an American woman in the process of divorce. In spite of the opposition of his family, he went to join her in California and celebrate their marriage in San Francisco, in 1880. That same year, they make their return in Scotland. In 1887, Stevenson returned to the United States, to New York, hosted in the spotlight for his literary successes and especially his short novel Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, appeared a year rather. That same year, Stevenson decided to leave on a long cruise trip to visit Oceania and the Marquesas Islands, Gilbert Samoa. In 1890, Stevenson moved permanently to Vailima, acquiring land in the jungle, south of the capital of Samoa. This acquisition gave him wealth and stability, integrating even with the local population. In 1894, Stevenson died at age 44 and was buried there, revered and respected, 400 men took turns carrying his coffin to his final home. Admired by authors Jorge Luis Borges, Bertolt Brecht, Marcel Proust, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Cesare Pavese, Emilio Salgari, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Vladimir Nabokov, JM Barrie, and GK Chesterton. +++++ Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes tells the story of a journey on foot of Robert Louis Stevenson, published in June 1879. The Scottish writer describes his hike carried out in autumn a year rather. The route concerns the crossing of the Cevennes. The departure is made from Monastier, in the Haute-Loire to the south. Then crossing to Lozère to arrive 12 days later to Saint-Jean-du-Gard in the Gard. This trip has a length of 120 miles. His fellow traveler is the donkey Modestine On this occasion, he remembers the war of the Camisards, confronted with the war of religions, the authorities of the time forced, under duress, the local Protestants to become Catholics. Stevenson, was 28, wanted to make this trip alone in the Cevennes, especially to relive his meeting with a pretty lady in divorce, met two years earlier in Grez, Fanny Osbourne, a beautiful American, came from California since 1875. But also, regain strength by practicing walking on foot, in view of his fragile health. In 1878, for personal and family reasons, the lady was forced to go back to America. Stevenson was very affected. He decided to forget, to leave towards the South of France, the opportunity to discover the theater of the war of the Protestant Camisards, close to the Scots, according to the stories that he lived being very young. In the same way, as an admirer of the novelist George Sand and his friendship for her, Stevenson sees there, too, an opportunity to follow in his footsteps. His steps lead him to Monastier, a small village on the Gazeille, where he moved to a pension for a month, in anticipation of his project. He decides to undertake the journey. For this, he acquired the donkey Modestine to accompany him. For 12 days, from September 22 to October 4, 1878, in the Valey, Gévaudan, Mont Lozère and Cévennes regions. During the crossing, Stevenson wrote the morning before resuming the road, his adventures of the day before.
