What do you think?
Rate this book
An Inland Voyage, Including Travels With a Donkey
We stowed the canoes in a granary, and asked among the children for a guide. The circle at once widened round us, and our offers of reward were received in dispiriting silence. We were plainly a pair of Bluebeards to the children; they might speak to us in public places, and where they had the advantage of numbers; but it was another thing to venture off alone with two uncouth and legendary characters, who had dropped from the clouds upon their hamlet this quiet afternoon, sashed and beknived, and with a flavor of great voyages. -from " We Are Peddlers" The sly wit and keenly observant eye that makes Robert Louis Stevenson a continuing favorite with readers is in full force in this 1913 volume, a compilation of two of the writer's least known but most purely enjoyable works. In 1876, Stevenson canoed through Belgium and France with his friend, Sir Walter Simpson, an exploit that resulted in the delightful An Inland Voyage; two years later, he took a walking tour of the Cévannes, which became Travels with a Donkey. More that just wonderfully escapist, these essays offer a glimpse into the mind and memories of an author's imagination, and serve as a vital psychological backdrop for the tales of adventure, romance, and horror related in Stevenson's fiction. OF INTEREST Stevenson fans, armchair travelers, readers of classic British literature Also available from Cosimo Stevenson's Across the With Other Memories and Essays.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1878
7 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Robert Louis Stevenson
6,884 books7,045 followersRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, and travel writer, and a leading representative of English literature. He was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling and Vladimir Nabokov.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
Most modernist writers dismissed him, however, because he was popular and did not write within their narrow definition of literature. It is only recently that critics have begun to look beyond Stevenson's popularity and allow him a place in the Western canon.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 3, 2017
These non-fiction accounts of camping and canoeing in France and Belgium were written in the refined and polished prose we have come to expect from Robert Louis Stevenson. With humor and irritation he describes his interactions with locals and reflects on their class consciousness. In some places he encounters hospitality, in others fear and hostility, but everywhere, curiosity. Rebuffed by innkeepers, who take him for a peddler or worse, he decides that "trees are the most civil society" and rediscovers in nature "those truths which are revealed to savages and hid from political economists." At Our Lady of the Snows monastery he is hospitably received but "annoyed beyond endurance" by proselytizing. In the end he concludes that the journey was "very agreeable and fortunate for me."
A slow and mellow read. Not everyone will appreciate the elegance of the writing and philosophizing here; not everyone will find it clear or even intelligible. But this is must reading for Stevenson fans as it gives unique insights into the author, his thoughts and his lifestyle, even his diet. I found it strange that he felt the need to carry a revolver! I felt no such need when I hitchhiked through that part of Europe with a pup tent. But I was good at making myself invisible; that is not so easily done when traveling with a donkey. Wolves were an issue in Stevenson’s day, but they didn’t even occur to me.
I thought Stevenson was a semi-invalid, but in this book he survives some very arduous travel, even to an elevation of 5,600 feet above sea level, while smoking tobacco, drinking brandy, and eating a substandard diet. Being pelted with rain was “revivifying” to the youthful RLS.
Maps would have been helpful to the reader. This book occasionally digresses into local history and uses foreign words and phrases without translation. Even some English words that I had not seen before. The author’s treatment of his donkey may displease some readers, but at least he is honest about it.
I preferred the travels with a donkey to the inland voyage. It is more readable, less convoluted in its philosophizing. The author’s donkey companion was more interesting than his canoeing partner.
A slow and mellow read. Not everyone will appreciate the elegance of the writing and philosophizing here; not everyone will find it clear or even intelligible. But this is must reading for Stevenson fans as it gives unique insights into the author, his thoughts and his lifestyle, even his diet. I found it strange that he felt the need to carry a revolver! I felt no such need when I hitchhiked through that part of Europe with a pup tent. But I was good at making myself invisible; that is not so easily done when traveling with a donkey. Wolves were an issue in Stevenson’s day, but they didn’t even occur to me.
I thought Stevenson was a semi-invalid, but in this book he survives some very arduous travel, even to an elevation of 5,600 feet above sea level, while smoking tobacco, drinking brandy, and eating a substandard diet. Being pelted with rain was “revivifying” to the youthful RLS.
Maps would have been helpful to the reader. This book occasionally digresses into local history and uses foreign words and phrases without translation. Even some English words that I had not seen before. The author’s treatment of his donkey may displease some readers, but at least he is honest about it.
I preferred the travels with a donkey to the inland voyage. It is more readable, less convoluted in its philosophizing. The author’s donkey companion was more interesting than his canoeing partner.
February 11, 2016
This two non-fiction tales find Stevenson on his travels, using his skills as a fiction writer to bring to his friend the joys and delights he uncovers as he travels around Western Europe, firstly with a friend and secondly with his beloved donkey. While I didn't find either of these overly inspiring from a travel point of view, they were interesting from a more historical and social context point of view. Generally a good little read if you like that sort of thing.
June 7, 2015
Really fun to follow along with. It's very easy to forget he's a travel writer while reading about Stevenson's various adventures in France. From 1876 and 1878, my copy was published early in the 1900's
November 2, 2023
the story of 2 men who travel the rivers of France in canoes
September 13, 2014
Lots of great quotes from this book.
p.15 "To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive...He may be a man, in short, acting on his own instincts, keeping in his own shape that God made him in; and not a mere crank in the social engine, welded on principles that he does not understand, and for purposes that he does not care for."
p. 43 "Trees are the most civil society...a whole forest, healthy and beautiful, giving colour to the light, giving perfume to the air; what is this but the most imposing piece in nature's repertory?"
p. 73 "It is not at all a strong thing to put one's reliance upon logic; and our own logic particularly, for it is generally wrong. We never know where we are to end if once we begin following words or doctors."
p. 271 "If we find but one to whom we can speak out of our heart freely, with whom we can talk in love and simplicity without dissimulation, we have no ground of quarrel with the world or God."
p. 280 "I was not much afraid of such accidents, and at any rate judged it unwise to dwell upon alarms or consider small perils in the arrangement of life. Life itself, I submitted, was a far too risky business as a whole to make each additional particular of danger worth regard."
p. 283 "To love is the great amulet which makes the world a garden; and hope, which comes to all, outwears the accidents of life and reaches with tremulous hand beyond the grave and death. Easy to say; yea, but also, by God's mercy, both easy and grateful to believe!"
p.15 "To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive...He may be a man, in short, acting on his own instincts, keeping in his own shape that God made him in; and not a mere crank in the social engine, welded on principles that he does not understand, and for purposes that he does not care for."
p. 43 "Trees are the most civil society...a whole forest, healthy and beautiful, giving colour to the light, giving perfume to the air; what is this but the most imposing piece in nature's repertory?"
p. 73 "It is not at all a strong thing to put one's reliance upon logic; and our own logic particularly, for it is generally wrong. We never know where we are to end if once we begin following words or doctors."
p. 271 "If we find but one to whom we can speak out of our heart freely, with whom we can talk in love and simplicity without dissimulation, we have no ground of quarrel with the world or God."
p. 280 "I was not much afraid of such accidents, and at any rate judged it unwise to dwell upon alarms or consider small perils in the arrangement of life. Life itself, I submitted, was a far too risky business as a whole to make each additional particular of danger worth regard."
p. 283 "To love is the great amulet which makes the world a garden; and hope, which comes to all, outwears the accidents of life and reaches with tremulous hand beyond the grave and death. Easy to say; yea, but also, by God's mercy, both easy and grateful to believe!"
October 8, 2012
Favourite Chapters:
Inland Voyage
- The Royal Sport Nautique
- Le Fere of Cursed Memory
Travels with a Donkey
- The Green Donkey Driver
- A Camp in the Dark
"But, after all, what religion knits people so closely as a common sport?"
"For there is a fellowship more quiet even then solitude, and which rightly understood is solitude made perfect. And to live out of doors with the woman a man loves is of all lives the most complete and free."
Inland Voyage
- The Royal Sport Nautique
- Le Fere of Cursed Memory
Travels with a Donkey
- The Green Donkey Driver
- A Camp in the Dark
"But, after all, what religion knits people so closely as a common sport?"
"For there is a fellowship more quiet even then solitude, and which rightly understood is solitude made perfect. And to live out of doors with the woman a man loves is of all lives the most complete and free."
January 4, 2015
Stevenson was a fantastic journaler. On par with Twain in my book.
Want to read
January 25, 2016Rec. by Elizabeth Marion Saunders
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews