His tale is riddled with folk stories recounted to him by the farmers and peasants he meets. He encounters the people of the region, so different to those near Paris or those in urban France. Stevenson travels an area mostly inaccessible to the outside world. Yet, it is also an unusual and valuable historical source. This book, short in length and filled with Stevenson’s dry humour is an easy and enjoyable read. It is a commentary on his journey, the people of that region, unusual in France for their Huguenot, French Protestant heritage, and his trials with his mode of transport, Modestine, a donkey. In brief, the book is a description of Stevenson’s travels through the Cevennes, an area in central France. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes may, at first, seem an odd choice of book for a history undergraduate.
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