Robert Louis Stevenson

“ In particular, Stevenson was drawn to the story of the main rebel leader Jean Cavalier, a legendary folk hero. It was part of Stevenson's greater goal to eventually write historical fiction about Scotland that would help unify it as a separate nation, and he eventually did just that with his famous novel Kidnapped; Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes can be seen as the young Stevenson honing his skills to that end.
Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes is one of Stevenson's earliest works and, as one critic said of it, a highly "filigreed" (ornamental) work. ”

“ There is a tourist industry in the Cévennes region that caters to hikers who re-trace Stevenson's route on an established GR-70 trail. There are even Donkey-rental companies for those wishing to hike with a Donkey. ”

“ There are passages of French prose; references to historical people, places and events; a vocabulary that includes not only some now-archaic Victorian words, but Scottish and ecclesiastical; and allusions to literary and biblical passages. ”