“A provocative a nd appropriately subversive book.”— The New Yo r k Times In travel books a nd o r ientalist painting, the Victo r ian concept of an erotic East as a gra nd harem with endless potential fo r pleasure a nd perversion fueled romantic imaginations, art, a nd commerce. These racial a nd sexual stereotypes became vital to imperial designs. In Imperial Fictions , Rana Kabbani unravels the erotic fantasies a nd myths that the West has developed about the East over the ages. Includes a new introduction about modern-day perceptions of the Islamic wo r ld. Rana Kabbani is a poet a nd translato r of modern Arabic poetry. She was bo r n in Damascus in 1958 a nd brought up in New Yo r k City a nd Djakarta.