Orphan Eliza Raine has never felt like she fits in at her school for young ladies. When a new girl comes to her school, she is shocked by her uniqueness but compelled as well.

A very unique style, I felt like I was in the time period it was written. I found the time period and the environment fascinating. The rules of the boarding school and their every day lives were my favorite part of the book. It took some time for the passion to begin but once it does, it’s very strong and takes ahold of the reader.

“Is this the face of a girl who’s been debauched? She’s never felt so clean.”

Learned by Heart comes out 8/29.

Historical Novels Review, August 2023:

Donoghue’s biographical novel of the real-life Anne Lister and Eliza Raine focuses on Raine’s story. We meet the fourteen-year-old girls when attending the Manor boarding school in 1805-06. Lister’s life and diaries were popularized in the Gentleman Jack television series. She is known as a prolific diarist of early 1800s Yorkshire life, as well as frank, detailed diary entries about her life as a lesbian. She wrote her intimate entries in code, which was later decoded, giving readers a view into her private life.

As a small child, Eliza Raine is sent to England from her home in Madras, India. Her father is an English doctor for the East India Company who had an affair with her Indian mother. As an illegitimate, “young woman of colour,” she isn’t accepted in society and certainly doesn’t fit into the world of the Manor School for young ladies in 1805. Her life changes when Anne, an independent-thinking, rule-breaking tomboy, moves into her lonely attic room. Eliza is enamored with the bold Anne, who is everything she is not, and they quickly become close friends, then lovers. Her first love is everything, and Eliza desperately holds on to it, expecting to spend a lifetime with Anne. But when Anne is expelled, she moves on to a new life and other lovers.

In alternating chapters dated 1815, Raine writes letters from Clifton House Asylum to Lister. Within these letters, Eliza’s pain and inability to let go of her loss will touch the reader’s heart. It becomes clear that her grief and obsession with Anne have resulted in her mental breakdown. Donoghue has created a living, breathing Eliza whose life was defined by rejection and loneliness, and who was unable to withstand the terrible loss of her only love. A sad, beautiful novel.

Janice Ottersberg

Grade: A

In retrospect, and especially after reading the Author's note after this novel, I realize that I was more than a little ignorant about the subject--or the love interest of the subject--of this book. I had heard of a show called Gentleman Jack, which was based on a 19th-century diarist, but I was unaware (or had forgotten) that her name was Anne Lister.

As a result, I went into the book blissfully unaware that real figures inspire it. However, I'm glad that was the case. Without any preconceptions, I could enjoy this story without trying to put any other narrative over it.

Anne Lister is not the protagonist here. Instead, this story is told through the eyes of her first lover, Eliza Raine, with whom it is believed Lister began a relationship while both girls were young teenagers. Their relationship arc is predictable, but Donoghue writes in a way that I never doubted Eliza's feelings for Lister. Eliza is portrayed as a slightly delicate girl who is always somewhat on the sidelines, thanks to being the illegitimate and biracial daughter of a "company man." Lister, on the other hand, is a figure almost bigger than life. No one, from Eliza to their classmates to their headmistresses, knows exactly what to do with her.

I loved the world Donoghue created. When I think of 19th-century English girls' schools, I think of Jane Eyre, which gives readers more of a nightmarish school experience. Here, the school is...fine. There certainly aren't any sadistic teachers, and the girls are getting what was considered an "appropriate" education, but it also isn't a haven. But what I loved about this world were the little details. The politics of teen girls is there, but we also see glimpses into their lives in their games and pastimes, which I found absolutely delightful.

Interspersed among this narrative are letters from Eliza written for Lister a decade later. At this point, we find Eliza institutionalized for some sort of mental illness (and not what was called "an unnatural affection" at the time). This added a really interesting tension to the story. What happened to Eliza? What triggered this? Is Lister to blame? These questions kept me turning the pages.

And here is where my ignorance about the real Lister worked against me. If I had known more about the real person, I would not have been so surprised at where the two women found themselves as adults. This didn't ruin the book for me, but I do think that the ending would have worked a bit better with the information I was missing.

While the ending may not have been perfect for me, this book definitely stayed with me, and I found myself thinking about Eliza and Lister when I didn't have my nose in this book. This is one I would recommend to someone looking for a different sort of novel set in Georgian England (and who knows a bit about Anne Lister!)

I received an electronic ARC of this book from Little, Brown, and Company through Netgalley in return for an honest review.

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)

Anne Lister, subject of the all too short-lived TV series Gentleman Jack, was a person far ahead of their time. Lister, as she preferred to be called, strode about her country estate in pants. She took many lovers of the lady persuasion. She traveled the world. Her coded diaries are still looked at today as a fascinating record of historical gender identity. But where did it all begin? There's always a first for everything humans do, and Lister's first love was a girl named Eliza Raine, who did not live so boldly or well as Lister.

Eliza Raine was an orphan of mixed parentage (British father - unidentified Indian mother.) She and her sister Jane were sent to England to be looked after by friends of their father. Placed in a girl's school in York, Eliza didn't do much put play piano, and blend in as well as she could. She had a room to herself and took pleasure in that solace. One day a blunderbuss of a girl arrives, asking to be called Lister and talking incessantly. She insults the school, the food, the school masters, the other girls, and in that lightning quick, thunderbolt to the heart way captures Eliza's imagination. Lister moves into Eliza's room, and the two become more than roommates, until Lister finds another girl. Eliza writes Lister letters, languishing until her broken heart gets the better of her.

I feel odd saying I don't want to spoil the novel, given that there are historical records and Lister's extensive diaries chronicling Eliza's story. But, I do think readers can make up their minds about reading the novel with or without knowing the story of Eliza Raine beforehand. The novel chronicles a tale older than that of Eliza and Lister - first love, broken hearts, longing, desire, being a misfit. And in the 218 years since Lister and Raine met much in the realm of social acceptance of homosexuality has changed. Yet, one thing remains true to this day - we all want to be loved and accepted for who we are.

Sometimes life allows us to lean in closely to another's private soul.

Emma Donoghue does exactly that in her beautifully written Learned by Heart. She breathes life into this relationship between Eliza Raine and Anne Lister in York in 1815. Learned by Heart is based on a true story gently told by Anne Lister in her personal diaries. You'll remember the vivacious Anne Lister in the HBO Series, Gentleman Jack.

The girls were just fourteen years old while attending King's Manor School in York. We'll meet a bevy of other young girls attending the school with its heavy rules and regulations. "Prim and Proper" would have made a great tattoo if such things even cross the threshold of such places.

Eliza Raine was a bi-racial heiress who was orphaned at a young age. She left India to come to reside in England. Because of her background, she was not always welcomed in certain circles. And mores the pity with Eliza trying to limit her spark of imagination. "These days I live on words." That is until the sky opens up and Anne Lister makes her appearance in the halls of Manor School.

Anne Lister is portrayed remarkably by the superb storyteller, Emma Donoghue. Donoghue creates moments in which Anne's incredible intelligence is showcased through bolts of easy manipulations. Anne turns the tide when even the adults are bamboozled through innocent conversations. Anne leads the way through the thickest forests.

Entertaining, insightful, and heart-rendering, Learned by Heart showcases a blooming relationship between these two that continued for a long duration. It's a reminder of the precious one who hears the same lyrics of the same song when the music goes silent for others. Bravo, Emma Donoghue.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Little, Brown and Company and to the talented Emma Donoghue for the opportunity.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown, and Company for access to this title. I am auto-approved for this publisher. All opinions expressed are my own.
3.5 stars

Set in the 19th century in the northern English city of York, two boarding school roommates, Anne Lister and Eliza Raine become friends and then become something much more.

Truthfully, I am growing quite fond of Emma Donoghue.

The foolish reader that I am was not aware until the author's note that this is fictionalized story of two very real people. Here's your warning because it is meticulously researched and the lives of women in the early 1800s were so restricted, accept this one is going to have a rather sad ending. I don't want to get into too many details because I might say too much.

Because it is set in a girl's boarding school there are a lot of characters that do interact with Eliza and Anne. At times, this was a bit confusing and I did find the story was moving slowly toward the big moment of the story. Because it's a bit of a heavier read, I think it is the perfect selection for a fall reading experience.







Expected Publication Date 29/08/23
Goodreads Review 21/07/23

I have always loved Emma Donoghue's forays into lesbian historical fiction (The Pull of Our Stars, Frog Music). Learned by Heart is no different - and like her previous books, this one will also shatter your heart. The only complaint I had was trying to keep the girls of the school separate (too many names to keep track of) but Lister and Eliza shine. Meticulously researched, as many have noted. Well done, Emma.

If you know anything about Anne Lister or enjoyed Gentleman Jack, this is the book for you. It's also the book for you if you like beautiful writing, queerness, the 19th century, boarding school drama, sad endings, beauty, joy, rebelling against the patriarchy, and adventure. Focusing on Eliza Raine's relationship with Lister at school, the treatment of women and women's health and bodies in the 19th century, women's autonomy, race, and class, Donoghue's newest novel is gorgeous, tragic, and a treat to read.

Emma Donoghue has once again written a beautiful, heartbreaking story. Based on a true story, the reader is transported back to the early 1800s, when Eliza Raines and Anne Lister are students at a boarding school for young women. Miss Raines is the natural child of an English doctor and his Indian “wife”. Miss Lister, who prefers to be known just by her last name like a boy would be, is a fiercely intelligent tomboy. Eliza and Lister start as roommates, separated from the other girls up in the attic, move on to best friends and finally, lovers.
Donoghue once again gives us scenes that are easy to envision. The boarding school is part prison, with its myriad of rules and regulations, girls earning demerits for all sorts of infractions. “A soldier, a prisoner, a workhouse inmate, a nun, a patient, a pupil, a lunatic - must they not all necessarily obey, living at such close quarters like books on a shelf?” Their time at the school is interspersed with letters that Eliza is writing 10 years later to Lister and it’s gradually apparent that Eliza is now confined in a different manner. It was interesting to actually read of an asylum that actually cared for its patients.
The story deals with those that are different, those that society doesn’t want. There is racism, but it was less explicit than I would have expected. I found it haunting, especially when describing their forbidden love. Donoghue truly gets how totally engrossing first love can be.
It’s meticulously researched and was a story in the making for over thirty years. The Author’s Note spells out how differently Eliza and Lister’s lives played out. I was unaware of “Gentleman Jack”, so the real life Lister was unknown to me.
My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company.

Donoghue’s newest book revolves around two girls that meet and fall in love at a boarding school in the 1800s. I didn’t enjoy this one as much. I think writing in the historical style instead of Donoghue’s more modern prose just wasn’t for me. Others might enjoy it more!

It is obvious Learned By Heart is a passion project with the care Emma Donoghue has taken in crafting this book. A literary fiction account of the life of Eliza Raine, this book highlights an important figure in sapphic history. The book is told in two timestreams, Eliza’s life at boarding school with Anne and Eliza in the present-day writing letters to Anne. This means it is apparent from near the start how things will end, and I am glad as a reader I was prepared this way. It makes the past chapters even more haunting.

Eliza Raine deserves to be remembered, and this book is a great starting point for learning about her. Many thanks to Little Brown and Company for an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

This was beautifully written book of historical fiction that I thoroughly appreciated. The book took the reader back to early 19th century England. The story was told by Eliza who was born to an Indian mother and an English father in an unusual relationship. After the death of her father, she and her sister made the voyage to England where they eventually ended up in a boarding school in York. There Eliza struggled with her ethnicity as well as loneliness.

The details of life at this historic school were fascinating - such colorful, vivid writing. Then Lister came along - what an amazing and vibrant character. Their eventual relationship happened naturally, and the demise of it was heartbreaking for Eliza.

Mid book, I realized that those amazing characters were real people. How remarkable that the author combined fact with fiction to create this brilliant novel that is now among my favorites.

Always so impressed by how this author can make history come alive. This gave me a little princess vibes when I read it but was so much more in depth. It’s a heavy book so maybe not a great summer read, but I definitely recommend.

Emma Donoghue is such a challenging writer. I'm never sure whether it's possible to actually enjoy one of her books, because she has a certain affinity for dragging a reader through misery for two-thirds of every book. That said, I did find Learned by Heart quite interesting. I appreciated the historical basis (Anne Lister's secret diaries), as well as the strong nod to 19th-century boarding school fiction. It felt very authentic and Donoghue clearly did the research to get to here. I appreciate her dedication to her craft, even if I don't always love every aspect of what she produces.

I'm a big fan of Emma Donoghue but this is not one of her best, in my opinion. It starts very slow and dry, with a weirdly detached formal voice that lacked any of the warmth and quiet urgency present in The Wonder and The Pull of the Stars. It took me a few tries to get past the first third or so. It picks up for a while in the middle because the love story is tender and beautiful, but once Anne left the school the pacing noticeably slowed down once again and left me reading just to get to the end.

Emma Donogue is my favorite writer, going all the way back to "Hood". She has always been able to create such intricate stories, that insert you directly into the setting. I don't think there are many who can compare to her level of research. Years spent on detail upon detail make for a mind-blowing novel. Those who have watched. "Gentleman Jack" on television can clearly recognize the voice and cadence of Anne Lister. However, the story is told by Eliza Raine and her story is just as riveting. Do not make the mistake of skipping the author's notes at the end.

Though not entirely biographical, and heavy on dialog, you can imagine the uncomfortable, lumpy mattresses, the chill and dampness, and even the chatter of the school girls. This is a love story but not really a romance so be prepared for some tugs on your heartstrings.

#NetGalley

I loved this intricately woven story set in York about two girls sent to a boarding school in 1805. Anne Lister and Eliza Raine become close quickly. As she wants to be called, Lister is quick-witted, daring, and fun. Eliza is quiet and tries to avoid attention as she is the biracial child of an English East India Company doctor and an Indian woman. Eliza traveled with her sister, Jane, to England, where they were placed in a boarding school. Jane is two years older and quickly ignores Eliza as she makes friends with girls in the Juniors. Eliza is identified with the Middles.

Lister and Raine are in an attic room with a profoundly sloping ceiling. The Slope becomes their magical world. The girls keep themselves busy with all kinds of hijinks. Even though their candles are collected at nine p.m., they keep a taper lit and read, talk, and think of the adventures they will have in their lifetimes. Love blossoms and the well-researched facts of Anne Lister come to life by ED's brilliant hand.

There is joy and heartache in the alternating chapters where Eliza writes from an institution later in life. Eliza's feelings for Anne never diminish. I especially appreciate the author's notes, which helped me understand the novel's historical influence. ED has again proven her brilliance as a writer of original stories in their creative art, drawing from real-life love and pain.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book to be published on August 29, 2023.

I've always been on the fence when it comes to Donoghue's work and can't decide if I like it or not. This wasn't for me, but think others (historical fiction readers in particular) will enjoy this.

Written with love, about love, but I didn’t think the framing device of the future Raine writing to Lister provided enough momentum to move the story along.