mstufail19's review
2.0
SO you have to take into context the time this book was written (Number 5 in my self-imposed history of romance curriculum, written in 1919) because it was problematic AF.
For starters, they refer to all the Arabs around them as "Orientals". There are a lot of references to pretty ugly stereotypes.
The main character is a feisty and adventurous young woman and of course, her persistence in going out into the desert without an appropriate male chaperone is the reason she was kidnapped. She was traveling with a full-on caravan of guards, supplies, and a guide, but they were all Arabs and sold her to the Sheik, which of course would never have happened if there had been even one white male chaperone to protect her (eye roll emoji).
There is off-page, but heavily implied, rape. Which is indicative of the time, when it was believed rape was the only way a woman would accept premarital sex and of course she eventually falls in love with her rapist (puke emoji).
I was optimistic that the main characters were of different races. It's not often in 1919 historical romances you see a white woman and a non-white man together. However, it turns out The Sheik is actually a white man who had been adopted by an Arab sheik.
There were some suspenseful and entertaining parts. If you can ignore or take the problematicness within context it was an entertaining read.
For starters, they refer to all the Arabs around them as "Orientals". There are a lot of references to pretty ugly stereotypes.
The main character is a feisty and adventurous young woman and of course, her persistence in going out into the desert without an appropriate male chaperone is the reason she was kidnapped. She was traveling with a full-on caravan of guards, supplies, and a guide, but they were all Arabs and sold her to the Sheik, which of course would never have happened if there had been even one white male chaperone to protect her (eye roll emoji).
There is off-page, but heavily implied, rape. Which is indicative of the time, when it was believed rape was the only way a woman would accept premarital sex and of course she eventually falls in love with her rapist (puke emoji).
I was optimistic that the main characters were of different races. It's not often in 1919 historical romances you see a white woman and a non-white man together. However, it turns out The Sheik is actually a white man who had been adopted by an Arab sheik.
There were some suspenseful and entertaining parts. If you can ignore or take the problematicness within context it was an entertaining read.
annarose96's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
big_lu's review against another edition
1.0
Read for uni.
Book 6? Of iso. I don’t even want to talk about how grotesquely outdated the stereotypes are in this. For something which is (arguably) one of the only canonical romance texts, this is a mess. I love justifying the fact that the white main character has fallen in love with a sheik by admitting! What! He’s actually! White!
Book 6? Of iso. I don’t even want to talk about how grotesquely outdated the stereotypes are in this. For something which is (arguably) one of the only canonical romance texts, this is a mess. I love justifying the fact that the white main character has fallen in love with a sheik by admitting! What! He’s actually! White!
mayralimeirajm's review against another edition
3.0
Stockholm Syndrome much?
Wow, I have finally found a character as contemptible as Bella Swan. Diana Mayo is an insult to women everywhere. How could anyone, on principle, love a rapist?
I couldn't find one single attribute in her I could relate to. Honestly, if it were me, I would have killed him as soon as he gave her that gun and said he trusted her.
How can a woman, in her right mind, see the bruises on her arm and think: "It's not his fault, he doesn't know his own strength. If he killed me I'd still love him." How entirely disgusting. Where is your sense of dignity, Diana? Where?
Still, I have to admit the book was a page turner, and even shocked and disgusted by their character and actions, I really was curious to know how Ahmed and Diana's "love" story would end. It kept me entertained.
Wow, I have finally found a character as contemptible as Bella Swan. Diana Mayo is an insult to women everywhere. How could anyone, on principle, love a rapist?
I couldn't find one single attribute in her I could relate to. Honestly, if it were me, I would have killed him as soon as he gave her that gun and said he trusted her.
How can a woman, in her right mind, see the bruises on her arm and think: "It's not his fault, he doesn't know his own strength. If he killed me I'd still love him." How entirely disgusting. Where is your sense of dignity, Diana? Where?
Still, I have to admit the book was a page turner, and even shocked and disgusted by their character and actions, I really was curious to know how Ahmed and Diana's "love" story would end. It kept me entertained.
familiar_diversions's review
2.0
[6/2/13 - Almost two months later, I've decided take one star off my rating and give it two stars instead of three. Everything in my review still stands, it's just that I keep coming back to my horror that this was written as a romance.]
I don't know how this is possible, but somehow I liked and was horrified and repelled by this book, all at the same time. I started reading it after reading snippets of Janet's Dear Author post, “Can't Find My Way Home.” I have read very few older romance novels and no sheik/desert romance novels (although I do own an as-yet unread copy of Marguerite Kaye's [b:Innocent in the Sheikh's Harem|10325015|Innocent in the Sheikh's Harem (Princes of the Desert #2)|Marguerite Kaye|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348542701s/10325015.jpg|15227455]). I figured I might as well give this one a try since I could get it for free. I knew to expect racism and a rape-y male protagonist, but that didn't seem to help me much once I was actually reading the book. I almost DNF'ed it a couple times, and yet I can't say I truly hated it. It's weird.
I was most engrossed in the book during the parts before Diana realized she was in love with Ahmed. Prior to her journey into the desert, Diana was naive, fearless, and kind of cold. She believed herself to be incapable of emotion, or at least the softer emotions like affection and love. She had absolutely no concept of how dangerous the desert could be and saw it only as a wild and fascinating place that drew her.
After she was kidnapped, nearly everything that initially defined her was ripped away. She learned to fear, as Ahmed's men overtook her guides and as Ahmed raped her. Hull did a fantastic job of depicting Diana's fear, so fantastic that I almost DNF'ed the book. It was almost painful for me to read further, and even worse to realize that, at some point, Diana was going to fall in love with Ahmed. I had serious doubts that Hull could ever redeem him in my eyes, and those doubts turned out to be justified. I'm uncomfortable with calling The Sheik a romance, because it's not like any other romance I can ever remember reading. It's a Stockholm syndrome romance.
I had expected/hoped that Ahmed would change his behavior towards Diana and realize how horribly he had behaved before Diana fell in love with him. Unfortunately, Ahmed's...discomfort...over what he'd done to Diana came well after she fell in love with him.
Her love seemed to happen literally in an instant. She had worked out a way to escape him and was riding away on her beloved horse, Silver Star. Unfortunately, she had been so focused on just getting away that she neglected to think about what she was going to do next, aside from ride as far away as possible. Ahmed caught up with her and told her he'd shoot her horse if she didn't stop running from him. She was so desperate to get away from him that she decided to call him on that, except he wasn't bluffing. He shot and killed her horse. While he was carrying her back to his home, she realized she'd fallen in love with him. The timing of her realization was so incredibly horrible that I was stunned. I even clicked back a few pages, just to make sure I hadn't missed something.
My horror at Diana's “love” for Ahmed grew when I realized she still feared him. Her totally justified fear of him made him more the kind of person a romance novel heroine should be running away from, rather than someone she should hope to continue to be with. Diana knew, because he had told her, that he would probably send her away if her love for him became obvious, so she tried to hide her feelings from him and pretend that nothing had changed.
If I remember correctly, the most notable shift in Ahmed's feelings occurred when his friend Raoul de Saint Hubert arrived. Diana treated him very much the same way she had treated Arbuthnot, a man who, early on in the book, confessed his love to her. She rejected him but asked if they could continue to be friends. Diana and Saint Hubert's relationship was entirely innocent at first, although Saint Hubert soon fell in love with her. Ahmed was ragingly jealous, and he mostly took it out on Diana. Diana, for her part, had no clue why Ahmed was suddenly so cold towards her.
I'm guessing I was supposed to sigh over my secret knowledge that Ahmed cared for Diana enough to feel jealous. I'm also guessing I was supposed to feel giddy over Ahmed's race to save Diana after she was taken by his enemy, and thrilled at his realization that he loved her. I was supposed to forgive him for his earlier behavior, because upsetting Diana suddenly gave him no pleasure. It's possible that all of this could have given me warm fuzzies, maybe even just a little...if it had all happened prior to Diana falling in love with Ahmed. As it was, it was all too little, too late. Also, considering the depth of Diana's fear earlier in the book, I'm not entirely convinced that the shift in Ahmed's feelings and motivation would have been enough to win me over, no matter when it had occurred. Had I been plotting this book, Diana would have stabbed Ahmed's eyes out at some point. She would then have escaped, dressed a boy, and picked up some street smarts while doing her best to evade Ahmed's men.
Had Hull not written this as a romance, I probably would have liked it a lot more. It's weird that, as much as I disliked the “romance” between Diana and Ahmed, I still enjoyed a good portion of the book. It was an interesting read, and the pacing worked really, really well for me. I'm actually planning on giving the one other book of Hull's on Project Gutenberg a shot someday. I'm just going to need a nice, long break first.
[Goodreads rating note: I really struggled with rating this, and I'm sure that, as soon as I hit the "save" button I'm going to wish I'd rated it differently. The adventure aspects, pacing, and the believability of Diana's fear made me want to give it 3 stars. The rape, the belatedness of Ahmed's remorse, and my unease with Diana's "love" made me want to give it 2 stars. In the end, I settled on 3, because that seems like a good "I'm not sure" rating.]
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
I don't know how this is possible, but somehow I liked and was horrified and repelled by this book, all at the same time. I started reading it after reading snippets of Janet's Dear Author post, “Can't Find My Way Home.” I have read very few older romance novels and no sheik/desert romance novels (although I do own an as-yet unread copy of Marguerite Kaye's [b:Innocent in the Sheikh's Harem|10325015|Innocent in the Sheikh's Harem (Princes of the Desert #2)|Marguerite Kaye|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348542701s/10325015.jpg|15227455]). I figured I might as well give this one a try since I could get it for free. I knew to expect racism and a rape-y male protagonist, but that didn't seem to help me much once I was actually reading the book. I almost DNF'ed it a couple times, and yet I can't say I truly hated it. It's weird.
I was most engrossed in the book during the parts before Diana realized she was in love with Ahmed. Prior to her journey into the desert, Diana was naive, fearless, and kind of cold. She believed herself to be incapable of emotion, or at least the softer emotions like affection and love. She had absolutely no concept of how dangerous the desert could be and saw it only as a wild and fascinating place that drew her.
After she was kidnapped, nearly everything that initially defined her was ripped away. She learned to fear, as Ahmed's men overtook her guides and as Ahmed raped her. Hull did a fantastic job of depicting Diana's fear, so fantastic that I almost DNF'ed the book. It was almost painful for me to read further, and even worse to realize that, at some point, Diana was going to fall in love with Ahmed. I had serious doubts that Hull could ever redeem him in my eyes, and those doubts turned out to be justified. I'm uncomfortable with calling The Sheik a romance, because it's not like any other romance I can ever remember reading. It's a Stockholm syndrome romance.
I had expected/hoped that Ahmed would change his behavior towards Diana and realize how horribly he had behaved before Diana fell in love with him. Unfortunately, Ahmed's...discomfort...over what he'd done to Diana came well after she fell in love with him.
Her love seemed to happen literally in an instant. She had worked out a way to escape him and was riding away on her beloved horse, Silver Star. Unfortunately, she had been so focused on just getting away that she neglected to think about what she was going to do next, aside from ride as far away as possible. Ahmed caught up with her and told her he'd shoot her horse if she didn't stop running from him. She was so desperate to get away from him that she decided to call him on that, except he wasn't bluffing. He shot and killed her horse. While he was carrying her back to his home, she realized she'd fallen in love with him. The timing of her realization was so incredibly horrible that I was stunned. I even clicked back a few pages, just to make sure I hadn't missed something.
My horror at Diana's “love” for Ahmed grew when I realized she still feared him. Her totally justified fear of him made him more the kind of person a romance novel heroine should be running away from, rather than someone she should hope to continue to be with. Diana knew, because he had told her, that he would probably send her away if her love for him became obvious, so she tried to hide her feelings from him and pretend that nothing had changed.
If I remember correctly, the most notable shift in Ahmed's feelings occurred when his friend Raoul de Saint Hubert arrived. Diana treated him very much the same way she had treated Arbuthnot, a man who, early on in the book, confessed his love to her. She rejected him but asked if they could continue to be friends. Diana and Saint Hubert's relationship was entirely innocent at first, although Saint Hubert soon fell in love with her. Ahmed was ragingly jealous, and he mostly took it out on Diana. Diana, for her part, had no clue why Ahmed was suddenly so cold towards her.
I'm guessing I was supposed to sigh over my secret knowledge that Ahmed cared for Diana enough to feel jealous. I'm also guessing I was supposed to feel giddy over Ahmed's race to save Diana after she was taken by his enemy, and thrilled at his realization that he loved her. I was supposed to forgive him for his earlier behavior, because upsetting Diana suddenly gave him no pleasure. It's possible that all of this could have given me warm fuzzies, maybe even just a little...if it had all happened prior to Diana falling in love with Ahmed. As it was, it was all too little, too late. Also, considering the depth of Diana's fear earlier in the book, I'm not entirely convinced that the shift in Ahmed's feelings and motivation would have been enough to win me over, no matter when it had occurred. Had I been plotting this book, Diana would have stabbed Ahmed's eyes out at some point. She would then have escaped, dressed a boy, and picked up some street smarts while doing her best to evade Ahmed's men.
Had Hull not written this as a romance, I probably would have liked it a lot more. It's weird that, as much as I disliked the “romance” between Diana and Ahmed, I still enjoyed a good portion of the book. It was an interesting read, and the pacing worked really, really well for me. I'm actually planning on giving the one other book of Hull's on Project Gutenberg a shot someday. I'm just going to need a nice, long break first.
[Goodreads rating note: I really struggled with rating this, and I'm sure that, as soon as I hit the "save" button I'm going to wish I'd rated it differently. The adventure aspects, pacing, and the believability of Diana's fear made me want to give it 3 stars. The rape, the belatedness of Ahmed's remorse, and my unease with Diana's "love" made me want to give it 2 stars. In the end, I settled on 3, because that seems like a good "I'm not sure" rating.]
(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
donastcolumb's review against another edition
1.0
**triggering** Where to even begin with this. I read this as it was a novel that was discussed during my inter-war literature class. I generally have a high tolerance for novels set within their historic context but this one was just too much. The level of abuse in this book is just incredible and it was a 'romance'. That all said, E.M. Hull does a good job at spinning a (predictable and ridiculous) yarn. The dissertations that could be written about the sexism, racism and classism in this book are endless.
kerite's review
4.0
3.5 stars. As an early and iconic part of romance novel history, The Sheik is worth reading for anyone who enjoys them. I bought an old copy for a dollar, and inside it has two sets of initials - one dated 1922, the other 1975 - and I love imagining what those readers thought of it. As for myself, I enjoyed it quite a bit! It goes without saying that it’s a product of its time in numerous ways. Being put-off by certain aspects is understandable, but we’re all aware those aspects are morally wrong without the need for anemic reviews saying little more than “yikes” and “umm problematic!” There’s an entire sub-genre of Kindle erotica focused on violent, aggressive, domineering men that readers are wholeheartedly enjoying, so who are we to loftily sneer at a similar book that was written a hundred years ago and bears hallmarks of its era?
Anyway. As I said, despite cringing now and then, I did enjoy the story. It's fascinating to see the elements and tropes that migrated to the bodice-rippers of the 70s/80s, and even to the romances of today. The scenery of the desert and camp is evocative, as are the descriptions of Diana’s emotional turmoil and her myriad feelings toward her captor and situation. I did want more direct scenes between her and Ahmed, rather than just implying they’ve been interacting; toward the end, she’s reflecting on intimate moments they’ve shared, and I would’ve liked to actually see them happen rather than in her memory. If possessive and dominant is your jam, this guy’s the OG. The Kindle erotica I mentioned? Ahmed makes those "alpha males" look like blustering teenage boys.
Anyway. As I said, despite cringing now and then, I did enjoy the story. It's fascinating to see the elements and tropes that migrated to the bodice-rippers of the 70s/80s, and even to the romances of today. The scenery of the desert and camp is evocative, as are the descriptions of Diana’s emotional turmoil and her myriad feelings toward her captor and situation. I did want more direct scenes between her and Ahmed, rather than just implying they’ve been interacting; toward the end, she’s reflecting on intimate moments they’ve shared, and I would’ve liked to actually see them happen rather than in her memory. If possessive and dominant is your jam, this guy’s the OG. The Kindle erotica I mentioned? Ahmed makes those "alpha males" look like blustering teenage boys.
taegibee's review
1.0
4/17 Guilty Pleasure module.
I was genuinely disgusted reading this book, and if I didn't have to read it for university you can guarantee I would never have touched it in a million years. Just so problematic. So problematic.
I was genuinely disgusted reading this book, and if I didn't have to read it for university you can guarantee I would never have touched it in a million years. Just so problematic. So problematic.