The Pacha of the Many Tales is Marryat's contribution to the Arabian Nights' tradition. The Pacha of the title decides to imitate that great work by collecting tales, each of which is thoroughly inventive and preposterous, but highly entertaining. The Pacha's taste is definitely in favor of the fabulous and against romance (but there's plenty of romance in the tales, as beautiful women need rescuing from a variety of misfortunes), and each tale is quite amusing.