Following Robert Louis Stevenson with a Donkey

by Betty Gladstone

Most mothers in 1963 didn’t set out on a journey with their daughters through an impoverished section of France with little knowledge of the language. But Betty Gladstone did and ended up being the toast of Le Monastier, France, where she is remembered to this day.

Fascinated by Robert Louis Stevenson from her childhood, Betty recreated Stevenson’s one hundred thirty-five mile trek through the Cévennes Mountains in thirteen days. Accompanied by her two daughters and Modestine, a donkey named after Stevenson’s beast of burden, they walked the author’s original path and slept in barns and in small hotels with questionable facilities.

Betty Gladstone's memoir, Following Robert Louis Stevenson with a Donkey: Zigging and Zagging Through the Cévennes, is the tale of her improbable journey and the lifelong friends she made on the way. In an afterword, her youngest daughter, who edited the book, chronicles the heart-warming aftermath in which Betty erected a monument to Robert Louis Stevenson in Le Monastier with a town-wide celebration that achieved international press coverage. 

$12.99

Reviews

Five-Star Review by Readers’ Favorite

Following Robert Louis Stevenson with a Donkey is a nonfiction travel memoir written by Betty Gladstone and edited by Carla X. Gladstone. While searching, unsuccessfully, for her deceased mother’s diary, Carla came across a manuscript that contained the story of their thirteen-day walking trip in the Cevennes, which they took in May 1963. Carla was 11 years old and her older sister 17 when Betty Gladstone took them to Europe in 1962, where they would spend the following school year. After their academic year was completed, the daughters and their mother set off to recreate the journey memorialized by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1878. Betty had read Stevenson’s account when she was a teen, and it had always been a dream for her to follow in his footsteps. In May, the three of them, accompanied by their diminutive and gentle little donkey, Modestine, set out on an adventure of a lifetime.

Betty Gladstone’s nonfiction travel memoir, Following Robert Louis Stevenson with a Donkey, while written over fifty years ago, rings fresh and clear as if it had been written today. That said, I loved seeing the French countryside and experiencing the culture as it was back in 1963. Gladstone’s narrative includes the reader in their discoveries, frustrations and surprise encounters. Carla also provides a wonderful selection of photographs taken during their trip, beginning with my favorite one, which shows a shy and somewhat disoriented Modestine peering out from the back of an old Citroen. I’m an avid reader of travel memoirs and was struck by the fact that the Gladstones hadn’t really done any training for what was an impressive hike including mountain trekking. Their good humor, determination and enjoyment in the quest they were undertaking is apparent on just about every page of this well-written and captivating account. Following Robert Louis Stevenson with a Donkey is most highly recommended.

—Jack Magnus for Readers’ Favorite

About the Author

Betty Gladstone was born in 1919 in New York City. She earned a B. A. degree in psychology at the University of California at Berkeley. She and her first husband settled in Berkeley after graduation. While raising Roberta (born 1945) and Carol (born 1951), she administered health plan memberships for Kaiser and was active in the League of Women Voters.

After 1965 she lived in France, then England, where she helped run a housing trust that rehabilitated old houses to create homes for low-income families. In 1979 she and her second husband returned to the United States for retirement in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She became an avid supporter of the Santa Fe Opera company, conducting back stage tours and soliciting local merchants for donations to fundraisers. Despite her lack of experience in retail, she was instrumental in opening a gift shop in the Opera complex to benefit the company. She died in Santa Fe in 1990.