Hachette India

THE SHEIK

EM HULL

The first of a series of novels Hull wrote with desert settings that set off a major revival of the ""desert romance"" genre of romantic fiction. It was a huge bestseller and the most popular of her books, and later became the film of the same name that made Rudolph Valentino a cult star.

Diana Mayo is rich, young, beautiful, and independent. Bored by the endless social parties of the aristocracy, she decides on an adventurous break-a horseback trek through the Algerian desert. Two days into her adventure, Diana is kidnapped by the powerful Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan, who forces her into submission. Diana tries desperately to resist but finds herself falling in love with this dark and handsome stranger, but he seems to be just a brute driven by cruel passion. A rival chieftain steals Diana away but will the Sheik realize that what he feels for her is more than mere passion?

Though the desert romance existed, it was The Sheik that truly revolutionized the genre even creating a lot of tropes. When it was first published, it was considered an erotic novel and stirred up a lot of controversy, being described in the press as ""shocking"" and ""poisonously salacious"" and was banned from some communities.

EM HULL

E. M. Hull was born Edith Maud Henderson on 16 August 1880 in the Borough of Hampstead, London, England. She was the daughter of James Henderson, a Liverpool shipowner originally from New York City, and Katie Thorne, of New Brunswick, Canada. As a child she travelled widely with her parents, even visiting Algeria–the setting of her novels.

In 1899, she married Percy Winstanley Hull (b. 1869), a civil engineer and later a prize-winning pig farmer. The couple relocated to the Hull family estate in Derbyshire during the early 1900s. They had a daughter, Cecil Winstanley Hull.

Hull wrote fiction while her husband was away serving in World War I. The Sheik, her debut novel, was published in England, in 1919, and to her surprise quickly became an international bestseller, staying in the top 10 bestsellers in America for both of the years 1921 and 1922. Hull's books quickly sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide. Sales further increased when Paramount released a film version of The Sheik, in 1921. By 1923, the novel had over one hundred editions, and sales had surpassed all other bestsellers combined.

Hull continued to write into the 1930s, and her 1925 novel The Sons of the Sheik was also a tremendous success, as was the film version The Son of the Sheik, which again featured Valentino in what was to be his last film.

During her later life, Hull expressed regret that she had sold the film rights for her novels for too little money.

Hull was quite reclusive and did not seek publicity. She died at age 66, on 11 February 1947 in Hazelwood, in the parish of Duffield, Derbyshire.