The Children of the Abbey The Children of the Abbey The Children of the Abbey is a novel by the Irish romantic novelist Regina Maria Roche. It first appeared in 1796, in London in 4 volumes, and related the tale of Amanda and Oscar Fitzalan, two young people in love who are robbed of their rightful inheritance by a forged will. Her third novel, it was a major commercial success, remaining in print for most of the 19th century, although its critical reception suffered from its original publication by the sensationalist Minerva Press. "The Children of the Abbey" was also mentioned in Jane Austen's popular
Georgian society in Jane Austen's novels titular "Northanger Abbey", or Donwell Abbey in "Emma"), parks (mansions surrounded by a vast park, like Mansfield Park in the novel of the same name, or Rosings Park in "Pride and Prejudice"), courts (another type of mansion, in theory approached via a vast courtyard, like Sotherton Court in "Mansfield Park"), halls (manors, like Uppercross Hall in "Persuasion", and finally simple houses, like Longbourn House, the home of the Bennet family in "Pride and Prejudice". This is why Catherine Morland is so delighted when she discovers Northanger Abbey, thinking, "With all the chances against her of house, hall, place, park, court,