Regina Maria Roche

Regina Maria Roche (1764-1845) is known as a minor Gothic writer. The groundbreaking Ann Radcliffe pushed her to write more books. But in her own time, she was a very popular writer. Her third book, The Children of the Abbey, was just as famous as Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho. She was born Regina Maria Dalton in 1764 in Waterford, Ireland. Blundel Dalton was her dad. He was a captain in the British 40th Regiment. They moved to Dublin. She went to England after getting married to Ambrose Roche in 1794. Before The Children of the Abbey and Clermont became bestsellers, her first two books came out under her married name. Both were written in English, French, and Spanish, and were published more than once. But after her fifth book, The Nocturnal Visit, came out in 1800, Roche had money problems because she had been ripped off by a dishonest lawyer. She didn't write again until 1807, when the Royal Literary Fund gave her money to do so. After that, she wrote 11 more books, most of which were set in rural Ireland. None of these matched the things she had done well before. She went back to Waterford after her husband died in 1829.