author
Regina Maria Roche
d. 1845
A bestselling Irish Gothic novelist in her own day, she captivated readers with dark mysteries, strong emotion, and page-turning suspense. Her most famous books, including The Children of the Abbey and Clermont, helped shape the popular fiction of the late eighteenth century.
1 Audiobook
The Children of the Abbey: A Tale
by Regina Maria Roche
About the author
Born around 1764, Regina Maria Roche was an Irish novelist associated with Gothic and sentimental fiction. She published early work under her maiden name, Regina Maria Dalton, and later became widely known as Regina Maria Roche after her marriage to Ambrose Roche.
She achieved major success with The Children of the Abbey (1796), a novel that won a large readership, and followed it with other well-known works including Clermont (1798). Though often discussed alongside the Gothic tradition popularized by writers such as Ann Radcliffe, Roche built a strong audience of her own and was one of the most widely read novelists of her moment.
Later accounts suggest that although her fame faded over time, her fiction remained an important part of the popular reading culture of the period. She died in 1845 in Ireland.