[Possible production] Travel essays, by Robert Louis Stevenson

[David]

I'm testing the waters here. Stevenson's essays are highly regarded, and his travel writing forms a distinct subset of these. Some have attracted particular praise.

All of these, as it happens, are appreciably under our 40K limit, even though several were published as independent titles. At a first pass, it looks like PG has everything, in these ebooks:

- An Inland Voyage (1878)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/534

- Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes (1878)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/382

- Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes (1879)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/535

- The Silverado Squatters (1883)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/516

- Across the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays (written 1879–80, publ.1892)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/614

- Essays of Travel (incl. "The Amateur Emigrant"; 1905)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/627

There may be the odd straggler elsewhere in his collected works. The PG edition of Across the Plains includes some essays that would not fit in a "travel" collection, it looks like.

Does this work? If yes, I'll need to do further research in due course. If no, ... then I won't. :)

Thanks!

David / Fife, UK

[Alex Cabal]

Inland Voyage and Silverado Squatters look like single long travelogues
and not a series of essays. Is that what they are? If so then at ~200
pages they should be be their own ebooks.

Are any of these duplicated across volumes?

Does he have any non-travel essays in his corpus?

On 12/21/24 12:31 PM, David wrote:
> I'm testing the waters here. Stevenson's essays are highly regarded, and
> his travel writing

> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Travel_writing>

> forms a distinct subset of these. Some have attracted particular praise

> <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/r-l-stevenson-travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-nonfiction-review-mccrum>.

>
> All of these, as it happens, are appreciably under our 40K limit, even
> though several were published as independent titles. At a first pass, it
> looks like PG has everything, in these ebooks:
>
> - An Inland Voyage (1878)
> https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/534
>
> - Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes (1878)
> https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/382
>
> - Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes (1879)
> https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/535
>
> - The Silverado Squatters (1883)
> https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/516
>
> - Across the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays (written 1879–80,
> publ.1892)
> https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/614
>
> - Essays of Travel (incl. "The Amateur Emigrant"; 1905)
> https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/627
>
> There may be the odd straggler elsewhere in his collected works. The PG

> edition of /Across the Plains/ includes some essays that would *not* fit

> in a "travel" collection, it looks like.
>
> Does this work? If yes, I'll need to do further research in due course.
> If no, ... then I won't. :)
>
> Thanks!
>
> David / Fife, UK
>
>

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[David]

It turns out this is a pretty deep rabbit hole. I'm seeking from guidance from a specialist, and while I wait on that, here's my initial responses:

(1) Own ebooks? But both Inland Voyage and Squatters are too short for us. Here's my rough word counts for the titles previously listed:

- An Inland Voyage (1878) | 37K
- Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes (1878) | 25K
- Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes (1879) | 34K
- The Silverado Squatters (1883) | 31K
- Across the Plains (1892) | 61K
- Essays of Travel (1905) | 71K

Some Across the Plains essays would need to be discounted; there are some others not in these collections to add, e.g. “Ordered South” (1874), “Walking Tours” (1876), "On the Enjoyment of Unpleasant Places". All told, that produces a volume of about 260K words.

There are a couple of late books from his time in the South Pacific: In the South Seas (1896), 103K;  A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa (1892) 62K. For some reason, these are *not* usually classed with his travel writing, I think because so much of them, especially the latter, is political rather than travelogue.

(2) Duplicates? Not that I can spot.

(3) There are about 7-8 volumes (!!) of "non-travel" essays (politics, biographies, criticism, etc., etc.). There are 28 volumes in the "Edinburgh" edition of RLS's work, and quite a few of those are devoted to essays.

It may be that this is too complex a project to take on, given our SE constraints. But I'll see what my probes uncover; it could take into the New Year, given the looming holidays. :)

D.

On Monday, 23 December 2024 at 02:09:35 UTC Alex Cabal wrote:

Inland Voyage and Silverado Squatters look like single long travelogues
and not a series of essays. Is that what they are? If so then at ~200
pages they should be be their own ebooks.

Are any of these duplicated across volumes?

Does he have any non-travel essays in his corpus?

On 12/21/24 12:31 PM, David wrote:
> I'm testing the waters here. Stevenson's essays are highly regarded, and
> his travel writing
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Travel_writing>
> forms a distinct subset of these. Some have attracted particular praise
> <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/r-l-stevenson-travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-nonfiction-review-mccrum>.

>  . . .

[Alex Cabal]

OK. I was just looking at the transcriptions and they had page numbers
going into 200 so I assumed they were longer, but maybe they were just
narrow pages.

In that case I do think we can consider those individual (if longer)
essays. I think we would include them all under their own titles, since
they are each coherent narratives, with perhaps the exception of "Essays
of Travel" which look like unrelated essays that can be broken up
without a header.

> <https://archive.org/details/bibliographyofwo00pridrich/page/216/mode/2up>" edition of RLS's work, and quite a few of those are devoted to essays.

>
> It may be that this is too complex a project to take on, given our SE
> constraints. But I'll see what my probes uncover; it could take into the
> New Year, given the looming holidays. :)
>
> D.
>
> On Monday, 23 December 2024 at 02:09:35 UTC Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> Inland Voyage and Silverado Squatters look like single long travelogues
> and not a series of essays. Is that what they are? If so then at ~200
> pages they should be be their own ebooks.
>
> Are any of these duplicated across volumes?
>
> Does he have any non-travel essays in his corpus?
>
> On 12/21/24 12:31 PM, David wrote:
> > I'm testing the waters here. Stevenson's essays are highly
> regarded, and
> > his travel writing
> >
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Travel_writing
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Travel_writing>>
> > forms a distinct subset of these. Some have attracted particular
> praise
> >

> <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/r-l-stevenson-travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-nonfiction-review-mccrum <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/r-l-stevenson-travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-nonfiction-review-mccrum>>.
> >  . . .
>

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[Gijs van Tulder]

Hi. I was looking for Robert Louis Stevenson's "Travels with a donkey in
the Cevennes" and came across this discussion on whether Stevenson's
travel writing should be in separate ebooks or not. Was this resolved at
some point?

If it was decided to make separate ebooks, and provided David doesn't
want to do this one himself, I would be interested in producing a
version of the donkey book.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/535 (34K words)
https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.178856

Thanks,

Gijs

[David Reimer]

I certainly never took it any further (and I never got a reply from
the "specialist" I contacted).

The only thing about the _Travels with a Donkey..._ title is that it's
only ~34K words, well below our usual 40K threshold for prose works,
although our Collections policy does leave room for exceptions:
https://standardebooks.org/contribute/collections-policy

It will be Alex's call, of course. I'd be happy for anyone to produce these!

David / Fife, UK

[Alex Cabal]

I think we were going to do a "Travel Essays" omnibus but someone would
have to finalize the list of what would go in there.

[David Reimer]

I have no plans to carry on with this collection any time soon, so if
you wanted to pick it up as a whole, Gijs, that would be wonderful.

D.

[Gijs van Tulder]

I've made a list of parts I think could be included in a Stevenson
travel collection.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRpn-KUoTNK16OJGuLZwhK06TksMrvktK5cOXhgwbKvUkaG68yD1qPkhwSqftEkvQQDpNw6HAEs0P0m/pubhtml

This is based on what I could find in published books (see e.g.,
https://robert-louis-stevenson.org/), the bibliography that David linked
to, and the texts that are currently available on Project Gutenberg.

I also had a look at this 2002 collection
https://archive.org/details/dreamsofelsewher00stev of selected travel
writings. They include some travels in Hawaii that have only been
published in 1973, so I didn't include those. Other than that, I think
everything they have is on the list.


In summary, I would suggest to include:

these full books:
* An Inland Voyage
* Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes
* Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes
* The Silverado Squatters

substantial parts from these essay collections:
* Across the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays
* Essays of Travel

From these two books, there are some pieces that belong elsewhere in
the ebook:

* There is an epilogue to An Inland Voyage, which I would suggest we
include immediately after that.

* There are a few pieces that form part of Stevenson's Scotland to
California journey. This starts with "The Amateur Emigrant" (first part
of Essays of Travel), includes "Across the Plains" (first part of Across
the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays), and ends with The Silverado
Squatters. These pieces are usually included in chronological order in
other collections (e.g., in the Edinburgh Edition and others), so I
think we can do the same.

There are also some essays that aren't travel-related. I think these
should go in a different collection (marked "Skip" in the list).


Then there are a few things I would suggest *not* to include:

* In the South Seas: this is a travel book, but it is long enough (102k
words) to stand on its own and is more or less a self-contained
collection of travels in a specific time and location. I would make this
a separate ebook.

* A Footnote to History: Eight Years of Trouble in Samoa: this is
somewhat related to In the South Seas, but it about politics instead of
travel. It is also long enough to be a separate ebook.

* Songs of Travel and Other Verses: this is travel-related poetry.


Finally, there are a few vaguely travel-related essays in "Memories and
Portraits" and "Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers". See the list. I
would suggest to skip those as well:

* With one exception ("Memories/Memoirs of an Islet"), they do not
discuss travel to a specific location, but are philosophical thoughts
about the nature of travel or the differences between Scottish and English.

* These are original collections that were published while Stevenson was
alive. Instead of removing one or two essays from each of these books, I
think it makes more sense to keep the books together and include
everything in another collection of non-travel essays.


I'm curious to read your thoughts.

Gijs

[Alex Cabal]

OK looks very good. I agree with all of your determinations and I think
the ones that are 'skip/travel?' should be skipped.

You can start a "Travel Essays" omnibus with all of those items.

[Gijs van Tulder]

Excellent. This is probably going to take a while, but here's an empty
GitHub repository to start with:

https://github.com/gvtulder/robert-louis-stevenson_travel-essays

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Lukas will manage this with Robin reviewing.

[Gijs van Tulder]

Hi, a few questions about the first two books.

An Inland Voyage

What to do with the italics in "aff-'n-aff"? Is this <em>, or some form of <i>, something else?

The book tells the story of Stevenson's canoe trip to Belgium and France with a friend. Throughout the book, Stevenson refers to this friend by the name of his boat, the Cigarette, leading to sentences such as:

Sometimes the Cigarette refers to the person, sometimes to the vessel, sometimes it's unclear.

As in the original, I've kept all of these instances in italics and marked all of them with se:name.vessel.ship.

I've done the same for other ships/persons, e.g., when Stevenson refers to himself as the Arethusa in the Epilogue.

The Epilogue has a bunch of dialog that look like this:

As this is part of the text that continues before and after the short pieces of dialog, I don't think it makes sense to use tables as in the "Plays and Drama" section of the manual. However, following an example from the source of Flatland, I have marked these up as paragraphs with <b epub:type="z3998:persona"> and<i epub:type="z3998:stage-direction">.

Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes

There are some words that aren't exactly in a foreign language, but are still consistently printed in italics. I think because they refer to specific Scottish/Edinburgh-ish use of the words, but I'm not always sure how to mark them up.

The most frequent word is lands, which according to Wikipedia are "multi-storey dwellings" specific to Edinburgh. This is always printed in italics:

Less frequent words and phrases in italics that I'm not sure how handle:

Are these cases for <em>, should they be kept as <i>, or should the italics removed altogether?

Removing the italics (as I've done for more generic words such as cafés or sous) feels a bit harsh for these cases.

What do you suggest?

Thanks,

Gijs

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[Lukas Bystricky]

What to do with the italics in "aff-'n-aff"? Is this <em>, or some form of <i>, something else?

You can remove the italics there entirely. It's just "half and half" with missing letters.

Sometimes the Cigarette refers to the person, sometimes to the vessel, sometimes it's unclear.

As in the original, I've kept all of these instances in italics and marked all of them with se:name.vessel.ship.

I've done the same for other ships/persons, e.g., when Stevenson refers to himself as the Arethusa in the Epilogue.

That sounds good.

As this is part of the text that continues before and after the short pieces of dialog, I don't think it makes sense to use tables as in the "Plays and Drama" section of the manual. However, following an example from the source of Flatland, I have marked these up as paragraphs with <b epub:type="z3998:persona"> and<i epub:type="z3998:stage-direction">.

Also sounds good.

Are these cases for <em>, should they be kept as <i>, or should the italics removed altogether?

Removing the italics (as I've done for more generic words such as cafés or sous) feels a bit harsh for these cases.

It depends a bit on context. There is the language tag en-scotland that you can use. I would say you definitely want keep the italics on words that can be confused with regular English words, as well as words Stevenson introduces as from the Scotch dialect or otherwise defines in the text, at least for the first occurrence, following rule 8.2.10.1. If it's a proper noun (e.g. Auld Reekie) you can remove the italics. 

[Alex Cabal]

Note that if 'n means `and`, then it should be set as 'n' (two rsquos)

On 8/25/25 12:40 AM, Lukas Bystricky wrote:
>
> /What to do with the italics in "aff-'n-aff"? Is this <em>, or some form
> of <i>, something else?/

>
> You can remove the italics there entirely. It's just "half and half"
> with missing letters.
>

> /Sometimes the Cigarette refers to the person, sometimes to the vessel,
> sometimes it's unclear./
> /As in the original, I've kept all of these instances in italics and
> marked all of them with se:name.vessel.ship./
> /I've done the same for other ships/persons, e.g., when Stevenson refers
> to himself as the Arethusa in the Epilogue./
> /
> /
> That sounds good.
>
> /As this is part of the text that continues before and after the short

> pieces of dialog, I don't think it makes sense to use tables as in the

> "Plays and Drama" <https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.4/7-high-level-
> structural-patterns#7.6> section of the manual. However, following an
> example from the source of Flatland <https://github.com/standardebooks/
> edwin-a-abbott_flatland/blob/4ed4d77a889fbc3657ee3300b0d9a140cefb26c6/
> src/epub/text/chapter-19.xhtml#L27-L38>, I have marked these up as

> paragraphs with <b epub:type="z3998:persona"> and<i

> epub:type="z3998:stage-direction">./
>
> Also sounds good.
>
> /Are these cases for <em>, should they be kept as <i>, or should the
> italics removed altogether?/
> /Removing the italics (as I've done for more generic words such
> as cafés or sous) feels a bit harsh for these cases./
> /
> /

> It depends a bit on context. There is the language tag en-scotland that
> you can use. I would say you definitely want keep the italics on words
> that can be confused with regular English words, as well as words
> Stevenson introduces as from the Scotch dialect or otherwise defines in
> the text, at least for the first occurrence, following rule 8.2.10.1

> <https://standardebooks.org/manual/1.8.4/8-typography#8.2.10.1>. If it's

> a proper noun (e.g. Auld Reekie) you can remove the italics.
> On Monday, August 25, 2025 at 12:27:42 AM UTC+2 gvtu...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> Hi, a few questions about the first two books.
>

> *An Inland Voyage*

>
> image.png
> What to do with the italics in "aff-'n-aff"? Is this <em>, or some
> form of <i>, something else?
>
> The book tells the story of Stevenson's canoe trip to Belgium and
> France with a friend. Throughout the book, Stevenson refers to this

> friend by the name of his boat, the /Cigarette/, leading to
> sentences such as:
> image.png
> Sometimes the /Cigarette/ refers to the person, sometimes to the

> vessel, sometimes it's unclear.
> As in the original, I've kept all of these instances in italics and
> marked all of them with se:name.vessel.ship.
> I've done the same for other ships/persons, e.g., when Stevenson

> refers to himself as the /Arethusa/ in the Epilogue.

>
> The Epilogue has a bunch of dialog that look like this:

> image.png
> As this is part of the text that continues before and after the
> short pieces of dialog, I don't think it makes sense to use tables

> as in the "Plays and Drama" <https://standardebooks.org/
> manual/1.8.4/7-high-level-structural-patterns#7.6> section of the

> manual. However, following an example from the source of Flatland

> <https://github.com/standardebooks/edwin-a-abbott_flatland/
> blob/4ed4d77a889fbc3657ee3300b0d9a140cefb26c6/src/epub/text/
> chapter-19.xhtml#L27-L38>, I have marked these up as paragraphs with

> <b epub:type="z3998:persona"> and<i epub:type="z3998:stage-direction">.
>
>

> *Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes*

>
> There are some words that aren't exactly in a foreign language, but
> are still consistently printed in italics. I think because they
> refer to specific Scottish/Edinburgh-ish use of the words, but I'm
> not always sure how to mark them up.
>

> The most frequent word is /lands/, which according to Wikipedia are
> "multi-storey dwellings" <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
> Edinburgh#Old_and_New_Towns> specific to Edinburgh. This is always
> printed in italics/:/

> image.png
>
> Less frequent words and phrases in italics that I'm not sure how handle:

> image.png
> image.png
> image.png
> image.png
> image.png
> image.png

> image.png
> Are these cases for <em>, should they be kept as <i>, or should the
> italics removed altogether?

> Removing the italics (as I've done for more generic words such as /
> cafés/ or /sous/) feels a bit harsh for these cases.

>
> What do you suggest?
>
> Thanks,
> Gijs
>
>
>
> On Tue, 12 Aug 2025 at 05:24, Alex Cabal <al...@standardebooks.org>
> wrote:
>
> OK, Lukas will manage this with Robin reviewing.
>
> On 8/11/25 5:09 PM, Gijs van Tulder wrote:
> > Excellent. This is probably going to take a while, but here's
> an empty
> > GitHub repository to start with:
> >
> > https://github.com/gvtulder/robert-louis-stevenson_travel-

> essays <https://github.com/gvtulder/robert-louis-
> stevenson_travel-essays>

> >
> >
> > On 11-08-2025 23:32, Alex Cabal wrote:
> >> OK looks very good. I agree with all of your determinations
> and I
> >> think the ones that are 'skip/travel?' should be skipped.
> >>
> >> You can start a "Travel Essays" omnibus with all of those items.
> >>
> >> On 8/10/25 6:23 PM, Gijs van Tulder wrote:
> >>> I've made a list of parts I think could be included in a
> Stevenson
> >>> travel collection.
> >>>
> >>> https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRpn-
> <https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vRpn->
> >>>
> KUoTNK16OJGuLZwhK06TksMrvktK5cOXhgwbKvUkaG68yD1qPkhwSqftEkvQQDpNw6HAEs0P0m/pubhtml
> >>>
> >>> This is based on what I could find in published books (see
> e.g.,

> >>> https://robert-louis-stevenson.org/ <https://robert-louis-
> stevenson.org/>), the bibliography that David

> >>> linked to, and the texts that are currently available on
> Project
> >>> Gutenberg.
> >>>
> >>> I also had a look at this 2002 collection https://

> archive.org/ <https://archive.org/>

> >>>>>>> https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/535 <https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/535> (34K words)
> >>>>>>> https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.178856

> >>>>>>>>> "Edinburgh <https://archive.org/details/ <https://
> archive.org/details/>

> >>>>>>>>>       <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ <https://
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/>
> >>>>>>>>> Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Travel_writing
> >>>>>>>>>       <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ <https://
> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/>

> >>>>>>>>> Robert_Louis_Stevenson#Travel_writing>>
> >>>>>>>>>        > forms a distinct subset of these. Some have
> attracted
> >>>>>>>>> particular
> >>>>>>>>>       praise
> >>>>>>>>>        >
> >>>>>>>>>       <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/

> r-l- <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/r-l->
> >>>>>>>>> stevenson-
> >>>>>>>>> travels-with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-nonfiction-
> review-mccrum
> >>>>>>>>> <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/r-l-
> stevenson- <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/06/r-l-
> stevenson->

> >>>>>>>>> travels-
> >>>>>>>>> with-a-donkey-in-the-cevennes-nonfiction-review-mccrum>>.
> >>>>>>>>>        >  . . .
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>
> >
>
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