Nocturnal Visit, a Gothic Novel by Regina Maria Roche (1800)

In Northanger Abbey, Jane Austen’s take on the popular Gothic novels of the late 18th century, a character speaks of the novels she is reading. These “horrid novels,” according to Austen, include popular Gothic fiction of the era. One novel, Clermont (1798), was written by the little-known Irish novelist Regina Maria Roche.

Regina Maria Roche was born in Waterford, Ireland, in 1764. From 1793 to 1834, Roche sporadically published over sixteen novels ranging in subject from travel to mystery/romance with a Gothic flare. Often included with minor Gothic writers, some argue that her work lacked a full dedication to Gothic elements, which differed in comparison to her contemporaries Eliza Parsons and Ann Radcliffe.

After the success of her novels Children of the Abbey (1796) and Clermont (1798), with Children rivaling Ann Radcliffe’s immensely popular The Mysteries of Udolpho in sales, Roche published the lesser-known novel Nocturnal Visit (1800). This novel features Jacintha who navigates a world of jealousy, harassment, and secrets while maintaining a stronghold in what is moral and good, traits commonly found in Roche’s novels. This title did not have the commercial success of the previous novels, but reprint editions are readily available today.

In 1845, Regina Maria Roche died in obscurity in her hometown. Roche’s obituary from The Gentleman’s Magazine reads,

“This distinguished writer 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; and imaginations once excited by her skill will yet acknowledge her loss with a melancholy feeling of regret, that the bright should thus have faded in the overwhelming darkness of fast-flitting years.”

Special Collections at The University of Southern Mississippi has the original four-volume edition of Nocturnal Visit. If you would like to view these books, visit the reading room on the third floor of McCain Library & Archives. The library is open Monday-Friday from 9am – 4pm.

If you have any questions, contact Jennifer Brannock at Jennifer.Brannock@usm.edu  or 601.266.4347.

Sources Consulted:

Butz, Helen S., Natalie Schroeder, K. K. Collins, Richard F. Batterson, William White, George Monteiro, Robert Murray Davis, and Peter L. Shillingsburg. "Bibliographical Notes." The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 73, no. 4 (1979): 459-88. Accessed March 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24302583.

Nichols, John. “Regina Maria Roche.” The Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. 24 (1845): 86. Accessed March 25, 2021. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hw29cs.

Power, Albert. "Regina Maria Roche (1764-1845)." The Green Book: Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural and Fantastic Literature, no. 11 (2018): 35-41. Accessed March 25, 2021. doi:10.2307/48536178.

Schroeder, Natalie. “The Mysteries of Udolpho and Clermont”: The Radcliffean Encroachment on the Art of Regina Maria Roche.” Studies in the Novel 12, no. 2 (1980): 131-43. Accessed March 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/29532035.


Text by Jennifer Brannock, Curator of Rare Books & Mississippiana.