[1] It was a huge best-seller and the most popular of her books, and it served as the basis for the film of the same name starring the Italian actor Rudolph Valentino in the title role.

Desert romance as a genre had been pioneered by writers like Robert Smythe Hichens and Kathlyn Rhodes, but The Sheik set off a major and influential revival of the form.

[4] Hull's prose makes heavy use of sentimental vocabulary and close focus on emotional states that are associated with the romance novel genre: Hull was skilled at creating vivid descriptions, but these are often undercut by her reliance on orientalist stereotypes, as in this passage from her 1926 travel memoir Camping in the Sahara: Throughout its history, The Sheik has attracted controversy, though this has shifted in form over the years.

"[5] In more recent decades, the novel has been strongly criticised for its central plot element: the idea that rape leads to love[3][6] – i.e., forced seduction.

[6] With its plot centered on the subjugation of a wilful woman, The Sheik has been compared to The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.

Women appear as protagonists in desert romances, for example, and in The Sheik specifically, the reader is engaged with Diana as an independent-minded and defiant woman for most of the novel's length, before Hull concludes her story in a conventional way.

[3] Moreover, it appears the couple means to live in the desert—a break on Hull's part with the typical romance novel ending that sees the heroine safely ensconced in the townhouses and country estates of the European aristocracy.

[3] Strong contrasts are also painted between the relative liberty of European women and the servitude of their counterparts from the Middle East: Although this passage appears early in the novel and is to a great extent negated by Diana's later submission to Ahmed, the questions it raises about women's rights echo some of the main themes of contemporary suffragists.