Better Late: Belated Space in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévenne

Abstract

[Abstract] This paper examines the portrayal of space within Robert Louis Stevenson’s Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, in particular its use of intertextuality. It firstly establishes a critical context for travel writing, and the context of reception of Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, before looking at how space in the book is related to historical information which Stevenson gathered outside of his time in the area. The paper suggests that space in the book is depicted as belated, and that the intertextuality of the work complicates its customary classification as an ‘off-the-beaten-track’ text. A comparison with The Cévennes Journal, Stevenson’s record of his journey, draws attention to how he presented this experience through the prism of information about the region’s history. An examination of Stevenson’s integration of material about the Camisards shows the extent to which his text was shaped by his reading and research, and his concern to present the space as he had come to understand it through texts. Comparisons with both contemporary and more recent travel texts show how Stevenson’s use of such sources to describe space prefigures postmodern travel writing