Emma Donoghue has done it again! A masterful work of historical sapphic fiction, per usual. Donoghue is an auto-read author for me, as well as many others, and this certainly did not negatively impact that status.

I read other books by this author years ago so i was happy to read her again. she is just as good as i remember and i have reccomemnded her and her books including this one to manay

I don't know what exactly I was waiting for from this book. I just know it wasn't for me.
There were so many great opportunities and somehow, considering how great other works of Donoghue have been, this one missed the mark.

I won't go into full details because I know people were thorn. I am just on the 'No, thank you' side and that is okay.

While I liked this story and this book, I didn't love it as much as I had hoped to. I feel like Donoghue hasn't written a novel as compelling and consuming as "Room" yet, though I'll keep reading them and hoping the next one will be it! I found the story of two young girls who fall in love in a time and place where they are forbidden to very good and well written, but I wasn't super excited to turn the page or read on to the next chapter.

The result of Emma Donoghue's decades-long obsession with Anne Lister, Learned by Heart is the heart-breaking and intimate reinvisioning of Lister's time at an all-girls boarding school and her blossoming relationship with Eliza Raine. What starts out as a familiar tale of young, forbidden love quickly turns into a darker exploration of obsession, classism and racism. I love Donoghue's writing but the emotional impact of this story didn't land as much for me as previous works.

Highly anticipated this novel based on Donoghue's previous books but ultimately it was a letdown. Well researched, eventually picks up, but just too slow and seems like just the beginning of the whole story.

I loved this book! I will definitely recommend it. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This was a bit slow for my liking. Emma donaghue seems to pick very fascinating topics to write about but they don’t always have mass appeal. The plot moved at a snail’s pace but the writing was top notch per usual. 4 stars thru and thru!

Generally I am not a huge historical fiction reader but something about this story pulled me in. Based on the true story of these two young women we watch as they develop and grow from young women struggling with school and bigger life issues to women managing their friendship and the world. I enjoyed the voices of both of the characters although the dialogue sometimes felt clunky, but really who knows how teenagers then would speak! I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

I was really excited to read this one - Room was such an excellent story and so well written.

For me, this one was just ok. The dialogue was a killer for me. I know that it is teenagers but I didn't enjoy the way the story flowed. It was a little stiff in its telling. And while the story itself was good, I just didn't like how it was written.

Well researched historical sapphic novel about Anne Lister and her partner Eliza Raine. This title didn't grab me like Donoghue's others, and left me adrift similar to how I felt after reading Haven. I so wanted to love them both but the just fell flat. Will continue to read future work by Donoghue.

An awesome sapphic/coming-of-age/historical fiction! I loved Eliza's voice, I felt so immersed in her every day interactions. It was also so fun to see a young Anne Lister too!

This book did not really hold my interest but I was able to finish it. Maybe because it was based on real people and events, it just did not have the excitement of Room or The Wonder. Emma Donoghue is one of those authors where I am never sure if I will love the book or just find it ho-hum. I feel like her non-fiction sources for this book might be more interesting. I gathered from the notes that this is a book close to the author's heart and wonder if maybe didnt get the polishing it needed.

I really enjoyed this book. It brought life to a side of history that is often pushed aside. I could tell the author did a lot of research into life in England in the early 1800's, The East India Company and society's view of sex and lesbianism at the time.

https://lesbrary.com/learned-by-heart-by-emma-donoghue/

Emma Donoghue’s much-anticipated new novel, Learned by Heart (29 August 2023), is a heartfelt biofiction about the life—and love—of Eliza Raine and her relationship with the famous Anne Lister. Drawing on Lister’s copious five-million-word diaries, Donoghue brings Raine’s story to life in this vivid novel.

While Anne Lister’s life and work have become enormously famous over the last five years, with Sally Wainwright’s ground-breaking television series Gentleman Jack centralizing Lister’s lesbian life and diaries, Learned by Heart approaches Lister’s early years through a different lens. Donoghue’s novel is characteristic of Donoghue’s historical biofiction, which rarely tells the stories of famous historical subjects but rather seeks out history’s fragments or outright silences. In this case, Eliza Raine and her life are central to Donoghue’s writing. As an orphaned young girl from India, Eliza arrives in England at six years old with the distinct and lasting sense from those around her that she is other. However, when she meets the young, brash, and brilliant Anne Lister at the Manor School for young ladies when the two girls are fourteen, Eliza finds a kindred spirit—and more.

Learned by Heart is one of my most anticipated novels of 2023, and I was delighted to receive an early copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This novel is another stunning addition to Donoghue’s impressive catalogue of historical fiction, and while series like Gentleman Jack focus on Lister’s later years, with her lovers remaining central but ultimately supporting characters, Donoghue flips the script in her biofiction. Eliza is our protagonist here, and we grow along with her as she moves through a journey of self-discovery. As Anne becomes more and more central to Eliza’s life, she paints a fascinating portrait of the other young girl’s earlier years.

This novel was everything I hoped for and more. Learned by Heart transports its readers to nineteenth-century York with its vivid descriptions and minute details, and typical of Donoghue’s writing, no part of nineteenth-century girlhood is overlooked. Years of research and dedication shine through in this novel, especially in the supplementary information at the close of the text. While this novel is a sweeping narrative in its own right, Lister researchers and historians will also adore Learned by Heart.

I can’t recommend Learned by Heart enough as the perfect historical fiction to read this fall! Learned by Heart hits shelves on August 29, 2023.

Please add Learned by Heart to your TBR on Goodreads and follow Emma Donoghue on Twitter.

I was incredibly disappointed with this novel. I am a huge Emma Donoghue fan and I was excited to read her latest. The dialogue between the teenage girls seemed all wrong, I actually forgot they were in a boarding school. Unfortunately it was so very boring.

I went into this knowing a bit about Anne Lister, but not any great detail. I found the book interesting and felt it moved at a decent pace. I enjoyed hearing about Anne’s relationships, but felt bad for Eliza. It seems like she got the rough end of the deal.

Based on the real life Anne Lister and one of her early relationships - Learned by Heart is set from Eliza's perspective and documents their meeting at a girls school in the early 1800's England and how their relationship unfolds, sending her slowly into madness. At times difficult to follow and a bit tedious, it's a heartbreaking story of two girls discovering themselves, and falling apart in the process.

Emma Donoghue is such a great writer of historical fiction, and I especially like her books, which have a romantic element to them, as this book does.

Inspired by letters found from a young love of Anne Lister's from their boarding school days, the story is told from 14-year-old Eliza's point of view. Kept as an outsider due to her mixed heritage as a wealthy daughter of an English man and his Indian wife, when Anne comes to school, they are bunked together. Anne is everything Eliza is not and inspires, tempts, taunts, and brings her out of her shell. With Anne, Eliza can imagine a different world and future for herself.

The pace is languid, the writing lovely, and all the more sad about how their story ended.

I enjoyed it very much and want to thank the publisher for giving me access to the digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Not my favorite Emma Donaghue book, but still would recommend reading this fictionalized tale of Anne Lister in her formative years at boarding school. I found myself trying to envision Suranne Jones as a teen while reading this - that's how ingrained Gentleman Jack has become in the lesbian community.

Very well told, funny at times, and it was an enjoyable read - it just wasn't an unputdownable book like the author's other books are.