Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen | Bath, UK

In August 2024, 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?

• 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.

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

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