Emma Donoghue is a masterful writer so it’s always a treat to read her novels. Learned by Heart is her latest and features the life of a young Annie Lister as she comes of age at an English boarding school at the age of fourteen. It was well written and full of emotions but I have to say (though it pains me to do so), I’m not entirely sure if I, well, liked it? Let’s dive into trying to determine why that is, shall we?

Here’s the book’s description:
In 1805 fourteen-year-old Eliza Raine is a school girl at the Manor School for Young Ladies in York. The daughter of an Indian mother and a British father, Eliza was banished to this unfamiliar country as a little girl. When she first stepped off the King George in Kent, Eliza was accompanied by her older sister, Jane, but now she boards alone at the Manor, with no one left to claim her. She spends her days avoiding the attention of her fellow pupils until, one day, a fearless and charismatic new student arrives at the school. The two girls are immediately thrown together and soon Eliza’s life is turned inside out by this strange and curious young woman.
The first thing I struggled with was wondering if I was the book’s intended audience and whether or not that actually mattered (spoiler: no, I don't think it really does). You see, I didn’t really know who Annie Lister was. All I knew was that she was, somehow, a known and important figure in queer history. Because of my lack of knowledge, I wasn’t really sure of the reason behind the novel but I knew enough to know she was someone of importance. I try to go into books without much knowledge sometimes because I want the author’s point of view to educate me and then I’ll read more afterwards. In this case, I wish I had read Donoghue’s notes at the beginning of the novel instead of at the end, where they’re printed. It seems that Lister and her history are a bit of a pet project of Donoghue’s, someone she’s been interested in for many years and finally had the opportunity to write about. I respect that so much - that she was so interested that she wanted to write something for all of us to enjoy and learn from. I want to learn more about the histories that have been hidden from us - which is why I wonder if it matters that I’m a straight woman reading about queer characters. It honestly doesn’t - I know this - and I want to learn more but I just can’t help feeling that I lacked something going into this book. It’s the strangest feeling and one that I'm uncomfortable having because I think it's coming from a place of...well, we know that most books and histories have been told from a heterosexual perspective, which is the perspective I live my life from as a straight person. It's not that I can't read books from different perspectives, it's more that I think this book is especially for the folks that haven't seen enough of these stories from their perspective and my feelings, quite frankly, don't matter. Which, you know, I'm good with. But the overactive brain just can't shut off when pondering this story!



I can tell (after reading the notes at the end of the book) why Donoghue chose to set the book when she did. It’s partially because of new research about Eliza Raines, which is interesting to consider. If Donoghue had written a novel about Lister years ago when she first had a seed of an idea, it would have looked very different than it does in 2023. First, the world has now been able to watch Gentleman Jack which is about Lister (I haven’t yet but it’s on my very long to be watched list) and that’s shown there's an appetite for these stories that have never been told before and absolutely should be. Second, more information has come to light about Eliza and the role she may have played in Lister’s early life. The novel alternates between chapters taking place in 1805 and 1806 when the girls are in school and letters from Eliza to Lister in 1815. The letter chapters are shorter but are quite unsettling. You see, Eliza is in a mental institution at this time and it’s clear she’s struggling. They’re not easy chapters to read but they’re so well done. (And if you’ve read Room you know how well Donoghue can take unsettling topics and write the hell out of them.)

The last thing I want to touch on that has had my brain running in circles is the age of the girls. You’ll notice I’ve called them girls numerous times (and I’ll add a caveat here that it could be possible, again I don’t have all the information, that Lister may not have identified as a female but I’m going to keep using the female pronouns here). That’s because they were. They were fourteen and fifteen while they were at school, and they and their fellow students were just starting to grow into the adults they’d (hopefully) become. But, to me, they’re still kids. And I know kids of fourteen and fifteen are having sex and this was the 1800s when I’m sure there were teen girls being married off far too young. But my modern sensibilities couldn’t shake the fact that I was reading about underage girls having their sexual awakening. Is that prudish of me? Am I the weird one for finding that odd to read? And this has, of course, nothing to do with the fact that they were two girls. I would have been equally weirded out if it were two boys or a boy and a girl at the same age. It’s been a huge struggle to wrap my head around and work through.

Even though it may seem like I didn’t like Emma Donoghue’s latest book, that’s not strictly accurate. I did like Learned by Heart and it is such a well-written and well-told story that it still lives in my head, weeks after reading it. Donoghue is so unbelievably talented. This is a book that I’m desperate to talk to others about so if you’ve read it, find me on Instagram @kaleys23 and let’s talk!

*An egalley of this novel was provided by the publisher, HarperCollins Canada, via NetGalley in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*

Beautiful writing of heartache and the relentless spirit. A sapphic romance embedded in historical fiction.

While this didn't quite overthrow Pull of the stars as my favorite Emma Donoghue book, it's still definitely among the top I've read! A tender, historical Sapphic romance based on a real life secret diary the author discovered.

This is a beautiful love story between two fourteen year old teen girls who become friends and then more during their time at a boarding school in York in the early 19th century. Full of historical detail, the big-hearted emotions of first love and perfect for fans of books like Possession. This was good on audio too narrated by Shiromi Arserio.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early digital copy in exchange for my honest review!! A perfect read for anyone participating in Saphhic September or looking for a compelling lesbian romance.

Beautifully written and expertly researched, this novel really captures the slowness school days and the intensity of a first love. Having gone into this without any knowledge of Anne Lister, I enjoyed the author's notes at the end of the novel to provide context for Eliza's letters. I also appreciated Donoghue's intentional breaking point at the end of the novel to really focus on days of youth rather than to continue the story into adulthood. It gives so much more weight to this setting that she has established and echos the real-life struggles of the characters once they were forced to enter the real world.

Book Review
Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue

Historical fiction steeped in fact
LQBTQIAP+ love
Racism
Sexism
Multiple timelines both past and present
Mental health
Friendships
Gender roles
Societal stereotypes of the era

I love this author but Lister’s story fell
A bit flat for me. The lyrical prose was at times hard to follow and after a slow
start I just couldn’t find my groove. I wasn’t invested in the story or the characters. Lister and Eliza were interesting but they just couldn’t capture and hold my attention.

Thanks to @harpercollinsca and @netgalley for my digital copy in return for an honest review. Opinions expressed are my own.

Emma Donahue is one of my favorite authors and the topic of this newest novel is fascinating. It's the reconstruction of Anne Lister's (aka Gentleman Jack, the 1800s openly lesbian trailblazer) year at a boarding school in York as a teen, and of Eliza Raine, her first love. The mass of research and passion that went into writing this novel is evident on every page, but the narrative bogs down from the weight of it. This novel lacks the classic narrative pull that makes an Emma Donahue book so unputdownable. I was also put off by the uncharacteristically clunky dialog tags. That said, it was still an interesting read.

“Learned by Heart" by Emma Donaghue captivates with its intriguing concept and thought-provoking premise. Donaghue's evident dedication to research shines through, adding authenticity to the narrative. The novel unfolds as a mesmerizing blend of fiction and history, weaving the tale of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine and their love affair. Transporting readers to a 19th-century English town and the confines of a Yorkshire school for girls, the book immerses us in its setting.

However, the pacing of the story is where the book stumbles. While the idea and groundwork are commendable, the narrative struggles to maintain momentum. The recurrent school banter among the girls fills majority of the story, becoming a somewhat monotonous backdrop that fails to engage fully. Amidst this, glimmers of
brilliance emerge, particularly in Eliza's poignant letters to Anne from the asylum. I wish these moments could have been further explored, offering a potential avenue for deeper emotional resonance. This is where the author should have shined.

Notably, the book's thematic crescendo, including the passionate love affair, arrives later in the story – around the 75% mark. For those seeking a fiery romantic connection, patience is required. So if your thirst is for a more intense exploration of
their lesbian love affair, the narrative's delayed development might leave you
wanting.

In conclusion, I was left wanting more from Donaghue.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollinsca for a copy of this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to Harper Collins Canada and NetGalley for an e-ARC of Learned by Heart in exchange for an honest review.

In Learned by Heart, we follow a love story between Eliza Raine and Anne Lister, two teenage girls in a Manor School in York in 1805. During this time, same-sex relationships weren’t acceptable, and the two young women were challenged to secretly embrace their overwhelming feelings for one another. Emma Donoghue has extensively researched Anne Lister’s diaries to provide a historically accurate story.

Emma Donoghue is one of my auto-buy authors. I love the amount of research that goes into her works, especially the timepieces. She fully immerses the reader with vivid descriptions, and I learn something anytime I pick up one of her books.

Learned by Heart hits you in the feels. The reader is transported to a story of first love, exploring what that means. Eliza and Anne are incredibly different but jump off the page and feel natural. The boarding school aspect is always intriguing, and seeing what schools and behaviours were acceptable during this time only shows how much we have grown in accepting. That being said, we have a long way to go.

My heart was fully invested in the twists and turns of this book. I loved reading about Eliza and Anne getting to know each other and recognizing that they were feeling love. She also captures that feeling of first love when you are fully 100% obsessed with your partner. There are also some devastating twists and turns that genuinely hurt.

I am so happy I got to read this, and now I will patiently wait for Emma Donoghue’s next book. I will be buying a paper copy of this one for myself! I can’t recommend it enough.

I’m gonna preface this with saying I am a HUGE Donoghue fan. Her book ROOM was what made me a follower of her work and every one since I’ve enjoyed.

For this, learned by heart (love the title), I struggled a bit. It was very slow, A little boring 🙈 (don’t hate me!) and I couldn’t get into it. By the end it was ok. But not one of my favs nor is it one I think I’ll recommend.

But as with most books, I think there’s a reader for them all. So don’t have to follow my review.. listen to others.

I appreciate the publisher for the gifted copy in return for an honest review. It was just ok for me.

A sapphic romance of two young school girls in York in the early 1800s. Emma Donoghue is well known for the research she puts into her historical fiction novels and this one is no different. Learned by Heart details the relationship between Anne Lister and Eliza Raine during their time at the manor school and reflecting back from Raine’s perspective nine years later.

This one took me some time to get through as it is a very slow story. I enjoyed the in depth character growth of the women but was a bit bogged down by the pacing. It may have meant more to me if I had known of Anne Lister prior to reading this book-I would say so, in fact. Having now read the story and the detailed author’s note, I am curious to read more about Lister. Donoghue has been interested in Lister’s life for many years and has completed university work and a play about the person in history.

If you are looking for another Room by this author then you may be disappointed but if you have enjoyed her historical fiction (a genre in which she actually has many more titles) then this one may interest you. I have read several of the author’s works and Slammerkin and Room are my favourites of hers.

Thank you to @netgalley and@harpercollinsca for an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinions. Learned by Heart publishes August 29, 2023.

I love Emma’s writing and I really enjoy how she brought the story of Anne and Eliza together. The chapters were long so I found myself getting lost once or twice but I really enjoyed the letters that separate each section. This is a beautiful story of a first love that must be kept hidden. The ending shows how easily a first love can break a person.

I liked this book well enough but had some issues. This was a slow burn of a story, and not in a good way. The constant dialogue of teenage girls felt rudimentary and repetitive at times. The downfall lies in the telling, it felt more like a history lesson or essay.

Let's end with some things that I did like. The book and its subjects were well researched and based on Ann Lister's own journal. The relationship is told in a very loving and sensitive manner, which I enjoyed most about the book. Once Eliza is older and has left the school the story got bogged down and a tad boring to me. I just wasn't interested any longer. There is definitely excellent character development and the writing itself is beautiful, which is typical of Emma Donoghue. There are topical and timely issues even though it takes place in the 19th century. Homophobia, first love, race and class and I appreciated that but it wasn't enough the elevate this to three stars.

Delighted to include this title in the August edition of Novel Encounters, my column highlighting the month’s most anticipated fiction for the Books section of Zoomer, Canada’s national culture magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

Once again, Emma Donoghue has gone back in time, expertly rebuilding the world as it once was. Learned by Heart places us in the early nineteenth century at a girl's finishing school. As you work through the novel, you feel as if you are actually a member of this school, joking with the students, sharing breakfast together, and exploring the grounds. I am always impressed with the way Donoghue crafts the world around her characters. I recommend this title to fans of historical fiction.

Learned by Heart is the latest novel by Emma Donoghue. It's the true story of Eliza Raine and Anne Lister, two young girls sharing a room at a boarding school in the 1800s. The story is based on Lister's secret journals. The facts and descriptions of the time were fascinating.

Eliza was drawn to Lister from the moment she arrived at Manor School for Young Ladies. The girls got close very quickly. It was interesting to see how they bonded, helped each other, and eventually fell in love. This story is emotional, captivating, and thrilling.

I'll be honest, it took me quite a while to get into this book. The writing was difficult to understand at times (expressions etc.) but once I was in the groove, I couldn't wait to see what would happen to the two heroines.

Eliza and Lister's is a love story like no other.

** Thank you to HarperCollins Canada for the ARC and the opportunity to review this book.

Learned By Heart is the story of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine, who met at 14 at Manor School for Young Ladies in York, England, in 1805. Born in India, Eliza was brought to England when she was 6 years old, and despite having a secure fortune to inherit, she’s not quite sure where she fits in with her fellow students and is isolated and alone in the attic room, feeling like she’s been hidden away. When Lister arrives – a smart, ballsy young lady who seems very different to the other girls – at first, Eliza’s not sure what to make of her boldness, but the pair strike up a friendship as Lister is sent to room with her. Lister seems like a bit of an enigma and Eliza is unsure of her at times, but as they grow closer, a romantic connection and love affair blossoms. At a time where their relationship would have been forbidden, and while Eliza and Lister dream of what their life could be like, Eliza has hope that perhaps she is not just destined to married off and become some man’s wife. You can’t help but hope for that for Eliza, too.

After reading and adoring The Pull of the Stars, I was delighted to be approved this ARC from Netgalley. In true Emma Donoghue style, she creates complex and endearing characters in such an authentic atmosphere. There’s an instant feeling of longing and a sense of foreboding from the opening chapter, which is a letter from Eliza to Lister. In a place where Eliza is so conscious of being different to everyone else and made to feel less than, its truly touching to see her confidence grow and her mind open as her relationship with Lister develops. Lister inspires free thinking, is daring and outspoken, she questions the way things are and why they have to be so, and influences Eliza to do the same. Despite the outcome, this was a lovely read with two intriguing main characters.

Most intriguing is that this novel is based on real people. Anne Lister is a famous diarist who documented her life in around 5 million words and has been dubbed “the first modern lesbian”. Donoghue studied letters and other documents to piece together Eliza and Lister’s story and conceived her own telling of how their relationship developed throughout the year they spent together at Manor School. I knew nothing of these ladies before reading the book but was really impressed with how meticulously researched it was and that Donoghue has a personal connection to the story of Lister who she says “changed her life”, as detailed in her authors note.

Learned By Heart is out on August 29th and is sure to be enjoyed by historical fiction and Emma Donoghue fans alike. Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Learned by Heart is classic Emma Donoghue: detailed, understated, finely drawn, poignant. It's a quiet, slice-of-life story, one that takes as its focus a group of fourteen-year-old girls in an English boarding school called Manor School in 1805. With a deft hand, Donoghue brings this setting and its inhabitants to life: the friendships, the gossip, the drama, the antics, the games, the teachers, the classes. Boarding schools are already such interesting literary settings, and Learned by Heart's is no less interesting. Throughout the novel, you get a strong sense of how the boarding school functions as a microcosm, a kind of world unto itself that is, at the same time, very much subject to the world outside it. What is especially compelling about Manor School, too, is the way Donoghue depicts the tension between the nineteenth-century boarding school as a formative space but also as a distinctly temporary one. The girls understand that they are in this school to be "finished," supplied with the skills and accomplishments they will need to eventually find husbands. So, in one way, the school is a means to an end, a bubble outside the "real world"--and yet in another way, it very much is these girls' world, the place where they are growing up, spending the most formative years of their lives. Needless to say, I found Donoghue's exploration of the boarding school as a setting to be fascinating, and I just loved the way she wrote about girlhood and adolescence in the nineteenth century, a time when the world seems to be opening up to these girls--when they're becoming alive to new possibilities, relationships, ways of thinking--and yet at the same time slowly closing in on them, pushing them towards that seemingly inevitable endpoint of marriage.

Setting aside, I was also drawn in by the characters of this novel, the two main ones being Eliza Raine, our narrator, who is the biracial daughter of a white English father and an Indian mother; and Anne Lister, who is a new arrival at Manor School, and who later starts up a relationship with Eliza. Just as Donoghue's sharp, detailed writing brings to life the novel's setting, so, too, does it bring to life her characters. I was especially moved by Eliza, whose loneliness in the face of her position is so keenly felt throughout the novel: her father dead, with only vague childhood memories of the mother she was forced to leave behind in India, and no family except for a sister who is cold to, and distant from, her. To be sure, it's a lot for a fourteen-year-old to handle, which is why it's so interesting when Lister arrives at the school and starts up a friendship, and later a romance, with Eliza. In Lister, Eliza finds a person she can confide in, someone who gives her the space to talk about the things she has previously found unthinkable to articulate, and, slowly, someone she grows to love deeply. The relationship between these two--first platonic, then romantic--is tender and poignant, the care and affection they have for each other so clear, and the ways they complement each other always engaging to watch unfold. And of course, Lister is no flat, boring love interest: she is bold and candid and insatiably curious, full of vigour and just the kind of person to shake up this group of girls with her arrival at Manor School.

So far I've talked about setting and character, but one last thing I want to mention is this novel's form. Structurally, Learned by Heart is a clever novel in that in between the slice-of-life sections set in 1805 and 1806 at the boarding school, we get these letters that Eliza is writing to Lister in 1815, some 10 years later. Little by little, we're able to glean information about Eliza from these (relatively brief) letters: what happened to her relationship with Lister, where she is now, how she's doing, and, of course, why she's writing these letters in the first place. I wanted to mention these letters in particular because they struck me as not just narratively effective, but also very moving, each letter a searing window into Eliza's shifting moods--whether she is melancholy, manic, bitter, resigned--a kind of thermometer of her state of mind at that particular point in time.

Synopsis (It's a fiction book, so it helps…from Netgalley, the provider of the book for me to review.)
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A heartbreakingly gorgeous novel based on the true story of two girls who fall secretly, deeply, and dangerously in love at boarding school in 19th century York, from the bestselling author of Room and The Wonder.
Drawing on years of investigation and Anne Lister’s five-million-word secret journal, Learned by Heart is the long-buried love story of Eliza Raine, an orphan heiress banished from India to England at age six, and Anne Lister, a brilliant, troublesome tomboy, who meet at the Manor School for young ladies in York in 1805 when they are both fourteen.
Emotionally intense, psychologically compelling, and deeply researched, Learned by Heart is an extraordinary work of fiction by one of the world’s greatest storytellers. Full of passion and heartbreak, the tangled lives of Anne Lister and Eliza Raine form a love story for the ages.
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A 5 MILLION WORD secret diary? Assuming 250 words a page that is twenty thousand pages. TWENTY THOUSAND!!!

Miss Donoghue essentially lives down the street and around the corner from me here in London so it is always interesting to read her works as she is usually pretty .... shocking, on the basis of sex, but that is just her personality. (She lives with her LOVER, not her partner, for instance!) I am not surprised that we have an LGBTQIA novel from her and it is an interesting look at hidden love 200+ years ago when being a lesbian would have meant your family probably put you in an insane asylum as you were "hysterical"...yes, hysteria from the womb was the belief.

Unlike a few of her other novels, I actually found this one ... "readable" ...I am kind of MOTR with Miss Donoghue (I am one of the few who believe that Room was better as a movie than a book) but this one kept me paying attention…mostly. The story dragged … a lot. But I’m glad that I stuck it out and finished it despite how many days it took me to finish.

I know this one will have a HUGE waitlist at our library so I am glad to have been granted a chance to read it in advance...I will recommend it to her legions of fans. 2.5 stars rounded down to 2