The Sheik (Barbara Cartland's Library of Love #1)

No one writes romantic fiction like Barbara Cartland. Miss Cartland was originally inspired by the best of the romantic novelists she read as a girl: Elinor Glyn, Ethel Dell, Ian Hay and E.M. Hull. Convinced that her own wide audience would also delight in her favorite authors, Barbara Cartland has taken their classic tales of romance and specially adapted them for today's readers. From Barbara Cartland: When The Sheik first appeared in 1921 we were stunned. This was the type of story we had never read before and it broke all the previous rules of story-telling. Then the whole world became fascinated by the romance and allurement of the handsome, brutal, passionate Sheik, and he became the vogue. Even before he was portrayed on the screen by the most glamorous film-star of the period, Rudolf Valentino, we had irretrievably lost our hearts to him. We all saw ourselves in the role of Diana Mayo, we all longed to be abducted into the desert and to be forced by sheer violence into obedience by an all-conquering male. Today the magic appeal of The Sheik is for me still there. I can only hope you will find it as captivating as I found it fifty-five years ago, and dream of a desert lover.