The Sheik (Summarized Edition)

The Sheik (1919) braids a captivity romance with an imperial adventure as the fiercely independent English heiress Diana Mayo is abducted in the Algerian Sahara by the enigmatic chieftain Ahmed Ben Hassan. Hull's prose is unabashedly lush—sand-dune panoramas, perfumed tents, and high-strung interior monologues—propelling a melodrama whose erotic charge scandalized and enthralled postwar readers. S...