The Greatest Historical Romance of them all.
Savage Sands is the quintessential bodice ripper and represents the historical erotica genre of the fabulous 70's very well. It was written in 1978 by author Christina Nicholson, AKA Christoper Nicole. The cover of the Fawcett Crest paperback is quite possibly the best representation of what a good histrical bodice ripper should be. I believe the artist may be an uncredited Robert McGinness, as I seem to recognize the style. It shows a very sexy young blonde girl in a sheer harem outfit, basically topless, about to passionatley kiss an older man, also shirtless. It is a wraparound cover, and shows also a vivid painting of the novel's antagonist, Hussein Bin Hassan, Dey of Algiers, around whom the first half of the book centers, among some other desert and harem scenes. It is a perfect entry in the harem genre, and, it being the 70's, Nicholson leaves no erotic scene/stone unturned. Catherine Scott is a woman of sheer passion. She was told by her rogue baron abductor that she was born to love, and he indeed kidnaps her for that main purpose. She is whisked away from the ballrooms of Paris unto a ship headed for the city of Algiers, straight to the bedchambers of the much older, and villainous Dey Hussein. On her way there, Baron Ricimer teaches her how to love a man, and informs her of her destiny. Once she reaches the Dey's palace, she is bathed, her entire body shaved and perfumed and painted with henna for her introduction to Dey Hussein. The eroticism in those scenes, where she disrobes before him, and he demands her love, are incredibly written, and very explicit. All the debauchery, and decadence of the Ottoman Empire is exposed here, and Catherine loses all sexual inhibitions in her three years as the Dey's favorite. The story uses actual events that happened in 1830 to coincide with the French overrunning Algiers and demanding the Dey's exile. The story centers on Catherine's ongoing obsession with Richimer, and her true love for the hapless David Mulawer, a French Foreign Legionnaire. Along the way, on her odessey, she is taken captive many times, and is forced to love different Leaders of Desert Tribes, in order to save her own skin, and the skin of those she cares about. I have found two other covers for this novel, one being the British Corgi cover, which shows Catherine both as an innocent Parisian, and as a seductive harem slave, and another hardback cover which shows Catherine and Ricimer in the desert after her re-capture. But the Fawcett Crest cover of the 70's truly captures the sensual spirit of the book. One look at that cover and one can tell that Catheine is in for an erotic fate which she cannot escape.