Use and Abuse, a Tale.

Bookseller Notes

Very scarce orientalist novel by Scottish philanthropist, prison reformer and friend of Florence Nightingale, Felicia Skene (1821-99). Skene's first novel, it follows the careers of two rivals, Raymond and Arabyn. Although undoubtedly florid, it demonstrates a real enthusiasm for the landscapes of the 'east', which it juxtaposes with an equally idealised England in its philosophical discussion of faith.Born in Aix-en-Provence to members of the Scottish gentry, Skene was raised in Edinburgh, where she played with the children of the exiled French king Charles X at Holyrood. Her father, James Skene, was a great friend of Walter Scott, and as a child Skene would sit on the novelist's knee and tell him fairy tales. Her family later lived in Greece, a sojourn which informed many of her published works, before returning to England and settling in Oxford, where she remained for the rest of her life.In Oxford she undertook significant philanthropic works; she assisted Henry Acland in organising a band of nurses to combat the 1854 cholera epidemic, some of whom were sent afterwards to the Crimea. During the war, Skene developed a lengthy correspondence with Florence Nightingale. She took much interest in rescue work in Oxford, working with prostitutes and with the homeless, and was one of the first 'lady visitors' appointed by the Home Office to visit the prison. Some of her experiences were told in a series of articles in Blackwood's Magazine, published in book form in 1889, and entitled Scenes from a Silent World. In addition to her work for periodicals she published devotional works and religious memoirs (including a biography of the Cycladean archbishop Alexandros Lykourgos (1877)), as well as novels and poetry. Her most well-known novel, Hidden Depths (1866), is a realist parable about prostitution beneath the dreaming spires.Scarce. WorldCat lists just five copies in the UK (BL, NLS, Cambridge, Leeds, Royal Holloway), and just eight in the US. No auction records.