In 1878 Robert Louis Stevenson set out on a walking tour of the Cevennes behind Modestine, the donkey that carried his baggage. The one hundred twenty-mile trip was through difficult country, and Modestine proved to be less than agreeable, too. Although Stevenson's adventure lasted only twelve days, his account suggests a much longer journey, with all sorts of backward glances, detours, and retracing of steps, both on the terrain and in spirit.
Stevenson's third book, "Travels with a Donkey" was originally intended as a lighthearted sketch, a companion-piece to his recent "Inland Voyage....

Solo Goya: Goya and the Duchess of Alba at Sanlucar is a meticulously researched historical novel about the great Spanish painter Francisco Goya and his most famous patron, the 13th Duchess of Alba. The encounter between Goya and the Duchess of Alba which figures in this novel took place at Sanlucar de Barrameda in the late summer of 1796, when Goya was aged 50 and the Duchess was a widow of 34. These facts and many others in this story are historically accurate, and most of the characters you will meet in this book actually lived at that time and place. But this is a novel, a work of...

Drawing on a wealth of archeological evidence, author Jon Manchip White presents a remarkably accurate picture of Egyptian life throughout dynastic times from the end of the third millennium to the Greek occupation in 330 BC. Because social conditions changed little during these 3,000 years, readers get a clear idea of the roles and tasks assigned to each section of the community to the Pharaoh and his noblemen; priests and soldiers; scribes and artists; and peasants, who formed the bulk of the population. How these people spent their leisure hours, how they dressed, what they ate and drank,...