ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a range of works which were either set in the Orient or employed Oriental motifs and allusions. Some presented the Orient as dark and dangerous but others, while expressing a degree of ambivalence about Islam, generally resisted polarizing good Christian and bad Muslim. Several of the selected works feature women as heroines or as victims either perpetuating or challenging the trope of Muslim women as oppressed. Others depict Muslim societies as violent but also as places where Europeans can enjoy adventures while for some the Orient is an exotic but perhaps intoxicating space where forbidden pleasures and even knowledge unknown in the West are available.
