 Nine of her novels are set in India and most of her works are in the setting of Anglo-Indian society, of which she said "there is such abundance of material ... it is full of such picturesque incidence, such tragic chance".The progress of her novels show her experimenting with different genres that might sell well or were known to be popular, and they were of increasing complexity.Generally, she followed a nineteenth-century tradition of "society" novels in which personal and public politics might play a part – epitomised by writers such as William Makepeace Thackeray and Anthony Trollope.