The Sheik Author:E. M. Hull Three years on THE NEW YORK TIMES Best-seller list. — When THE SHEIK was first published, THE SATURDAY REVIEW called it "poisonously salacious." THE NEW YORK TIMES referred to its "scenes of incandescent passion" when describing its "shocker-appeal." And libraries all the country refused to purchase it. — Never before had a novel which described l... more »ove and sex so honestly appeared on the American scene. And never before had both men and women been so excited and aroused by a single book.
The torrid love affair between the amoral, barbaric and handsome Sheik and the fiercely independent and beautiful young woman he abducted to his tents in the desert, where he forced her to become his mistress, remains the most powerful novel of love, passion and hate ever written.« less
When this was published (1919) a review referred to "scenes of incandescent passion" -- after all these years, I agree. You don't have to be graphic to be senseous.