Northanger Abbey: Bath, U.K.

August 27th -31st, 2024

This pilgrimage is full. You can join the wait list and we’ll let you know if any spots open up.

Next August, we will gather in Bath for a walking pilgrimage dedicated to Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. In classes led by Margaret H. Willison, pilgrims on this trip will examine Austen’s sparkling satire on Gothic fiction through the theme of doubt. Despite being one of the last of Austen’s novels to be published, Northanger Abbey is the first novel she completed and sold, when she was only twenty-eight. This gives the novel a delightful cohesion, as Austen’s authorial journey matches the development of the novel’s heroine, Catherine Moreland.

In the novel, Catherine makes her debut in Bath, then a fashionable watering place where, removed from London’s rigid social hierarchy, the wealthy and important mingled freely with provincial gentry, nouveau riche society aspirants, and sometimes even outright schemers. Pilgrims will explore this gorgeous city and reflect on Catherine’s journey from naïve dreamer to confident young woman. With support from Vanessa Zoltan as chaplain, they will consider questions like: how do I learn when to trust my gut and when to doubt it? Is it safe to treat strangers as credible, or must doubt be our starting approach? And: Once someone has lost our trust, can confidence ever be restored, and how?

What’s Included:

• 4 nights in a shared or private room at Eight, a boutique hotel housed in two converted townhouses right in the heart of Bath

• All meals from lunch on August 27th to breakfast on the 31st

• Transportation within Bath from the afternoon of the 27th to midday on the 31st within the region

• One-on-one chaplaincy sessions 

• Private walking tours, picnics, and museum tours

• Customized journal

PRICING/LOGISTICS:

• We will be meeting in Bath on August 27th.

• Each pilgrim is responsible for handling their own travel expenses and arrangements prior to our meeting on 27th and after we say goodbye on the 31st.

• We will be walking up to 12 miles each day, sometimes on hilly terrain. The weather in the UK is notoriously variant. It might be mild and sunny, or wet and windy, sometimes all in the same day. We won’t rush our walks, but we expect to be tired at the end of each day.

• The total cost of the trip is $4,500 for a shared room and $4,995 for a private room.

• We are offering a payment plan for this trip (read below).

• People who have attended another Common Ground pilgrimage will receive a 5% discount on the cost of the trip.

• Once you register, spots are offered on a first come, first served basis.

• Within 48 hours of your registration, we will send you a link to complete your payment for the trip. You will then have 48 hours to fulfill payment and officially reserve your spot.

• If you cannot fulfill payment, we will offer the spot to the next registrant on the list until all the spots are full.

• At that point, we will notify any remaining registrants that they are now on our waitlist for this trip: if a spot opens up, we will offer it in order, from the earliest to most recent registrant, until it is claimed.

• If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us at commonground@notsorryproductions.com.

Payment Plan

We’re thrilled to be able to offer a payment plan that breaks the cost of the pilgrimage into three parts.

Please note: You cannot combine a Payment Plan with a Scholarship.

Shared Room:

$2,850 Deposit Upon Registration

June 1, 2024: $1,650 Automatic Withdrawal

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Total Cost of Pilgrimage (Shared Room): $4,500

If you’re interested in a payment plan, fill out our registration form here and, when asked if you can pay in full, select the answer “No, please send me a link to the payment plan.”

Within two business days, the Common Ground team will email you at the address you have provided with all information needed to activate your payment plan and reserve your spot.

Note: Past pilgrims will receive 5% off the cost of the trip, even through payment plans.

More About the Trip

Over the course of their time together, pilgrims will go on gorgeous walks, have high tea, lust after Georgian real estate, visit assembly rooms, and attempt to imagine the impact Bath’s gracious sophistication would have on a 17-year-old who’d never visited a real city before. Reveling in the city’s aesthetic cohesion and assurance, our pilgrims will contemplate how hard it might be to live somewhere so mannered while feeling all the awkwardness and uncertainty that characterize adolescence. And finally, they will trace Jane Austen’s footsteps through Bath, a city where the author spent many formative, but not necessarily happy, years. Pilgrims will leave the trip with a deeper understanding of both Austen and how to trust their instincts.

Trip Faculty

Refund Policy:

Please be sure you can attend the event before booking. If an unforeseen circumstance does occur, we will do our best to find a replacement for you. If we are able to get someone to take your place, we will refund your full payment minus a service charge (10% of the full payment). For cancellations within six weeks of the beginning of the trip, we are not able to find replacements. We strongly urge you to purchase travel insurance in the event of a personal conflict, health issue, or unexpected circumstance.