Let me describe the story of a book and you try and guess what it is, ok?
One day, a bored housewife sat down and started writing an erotic story. It’s a sordid tale of a naive young woman who surrenders herself sexually to an older, more experiences and dominant man. The story is filled with graphic descriptions of sex and erotic passages describing the woman’s descent into a sexually submissive relationships that pushes her sexual and emotional boundaries. The author’s writing style wasn’t exactly going to garner any critical acclaim but she liked it and decided to share it with some others. So she publishes it and waits to see what happens. Sales are slow at first and the critics pretty much pan it but popularity grows. Before she knows it, the woman’s story becomes a huge bestseller in both the United States and the United Kingdom. A Hollywood movie is made of the book which is also popular in spite of critics saying the book is ‘poisonously salacious’ and that is does nothing but glorify ‘lust and lechery’. Later, the author releases two equally salacious sequels which are again well received by the public but panned by traditional critics.
So by now you probably think you know what the book is. It sums up the whirlwind evolution of E. L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey. But while this sounds just like that modern day erotic fairy tale, it’s actually the story of a British author born more than 80 years before E. L. James was even born.
- M. Hull was a housewife who found herself with a lot of free time in the early 1900s when her husband was deployed to fight in World War I. She began writing her epic, The Sheik, as a way to distract herself from the sense of loneliness she felt while her husband was away. The book told the story of a young woman who is kidnapped by The Sheik while on vacation in the desert. She is kept as a sex slave and raped repeatedly throughout the story. Over time, she realises she loves the man who has kept her captive and sexually tortured her. She must keep her feelings secret because The Sheik has made it clear he wants no emotional ties with anyone. Eventually, though, she is kidnapped by a rival sheik and as The Sheik races to reclaim his property he realises that he has grown to love her. In the end, it’s a graphic story of one woman’s sexual growth under the tutelage of a seemingly cold and callous Dominant who experiences emotional growth.
Sounds familiar?
Hull paid to have The Sheik published in 1919. The book wasn’t exactly a runaway best seller. But the initial slow sales didn’t last long. The book became an international best seller and made the author a household name overnight. While critics panned the author’s writing style and choice of subject, her readers couldn’t get enough. In 1921 Hollywood released a film adaptation of the novel though readers were disappointed that it wasn’t nearly as graphic as the book.
Still, the movie was also incredibly popular with the public and Hull went on to write several other books, all of which were successful with the public, if not the critical literary elite. At the time – the early 1900s – erotic fiction for the female audience was seen as nothing short of scandalous. In that way, Hull’s books became a part of the growing movement for female rights and a more open and frank discussion of sex in general. Women with friends who read – and no doubt highly recommended – the books could discuss the themes and specific acts the books covered making it easier for untold numbers of women to explore their own sexuality. The books were also no doubt shared between couples which no doubt pleased any number of husbands who finally had a way to experiment and explore different sexual games with their wives.
Hull’s books are now largely forgotten though the movie by the same name remains popular with film buffs. But what the books lacked in longevity they more than made up for in terms of pop-culture at the time. Some even say it clearly inspired E. L. James’ breakthrough books a lifetime later. Either way, the story of E. M. Hull and her series The Sheik proves that when it comes to mainstream erotica, everything old is new again.
