The following test fails with version 1.0.1, and the snapshot.jar from the download page: public void testSlashRSlashSlashSlashN(){ StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer().append('\r').append('\\').append('\n'); XStream xstream = new XStream(); String before = sb.toString(); String xml = xstream.toXML(before); String after = (String)xstream.fromXML(xml); assertEquals("strings don't match",before,after); }