After her successful travelogue The City of the Sultan, Pardoe, a travel writer and historical novelist, published a collection of oriental tales which are narrated by Katinka, a harem slave from Chios, to amuse her master Saifula Pasha. Through her storytelling and schemes, Pardoe’s Greek heroine acquires the power to undermine the conditions of her enslavement and rule the harem.
Julia Pardoe (1839), The Romance of the Harem, London: Henry Colburn.