Regina Maria Roche

Regina Maria Roche (1764 – 17 March 1845) was an Irish Gothic novelist, best known for The Children of the Abbey and Clermont (1798). Encouraged by the success of the pioneering Ann Radcliffe, she became a bestselling author in her own time. The popularity of her third novel, The Children of the Abbey, rivalled that of Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho, and was mentioned in Jane Austen's novel Emma.

Life She was born Regina Maria Dalton in Waterford, Ireland in 1764. Her father, Blundel Dalton, was a captain in the British 40th Regiment. The Gentleman's Magazine obituary calls her a "distinguished writer [who] had retired from the world and the world had forgotten her. But many young hearts, now old must remember the effect upon them of her graceful and touching compositions."

Popularity The Children of the Abbey, a sentimental Gothic romance, was one of the most popular novels of the 1790s. Her Clermont was Roche's only full attempt at writing a truly Gothic novel. It is decidedly darker in tone than anything else she wrote.

Both novels went through several editions and were translated into French and Spanish. Clermont was one of the Northanger Horrid Novels satirised by Jane Austen in her novel Northanger Abbey.