Hardback: 323 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction, LGBT,
Publisher: Picador 2023
Source: Tywyn Public Library
Review Quote: Her touch is so light and exuberantly inventive, her insight at once so forensic and intimate, her people so ordinary even in their oddities ― The Guardian
First Sentences: My dear Lister, Last night I went to the Manor again.
My Opinion: The inspiration for this novel was Anne Lister, a real life person, whom I first came across as the character 'Gentleman Jack.' She is the protagonist in the television series of the same name, which I throughly enjoyed.
This heart breaking story of the love between Anne Lister and Eliza Raine is from a much easier period in her life when she was just fourteen and at boarding school. It is an insightful depiction of their school life and what was expected of young girls in society at this time. Also we learn of life after school in Eliza's letters to Anne, some years later.
Emma Donoghue writes with an emotional intensity that draws me in and 'Learned by Heart' was no exception. The authors notes give the reader a great insight into just how much research was involved in writing this bitter sweet love story. I can recommend this compelling read to fans of the author, plus anyone interested in learning more about lesbianism in nineteenth century society.
Links to Previous Reviews : Room The Wonder The Pull of the Stars Haven
Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:
Eliza and Lister have never been this wide-awake in their lives, and the Slope, with its curtains drawn wide, is bright with starlight. They talk in whispers, not to disturb the maids who lie sleeping on the other side of the box room. The question Eliza’s been needing to ask swells like a great berry in her mouth, and all at once she’s not scared to let it out, not scared at all, not scared of anything . . .
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.
Learned by Heart, Emma Donoghue’s mesmerising new novel, tells the heartbreaking story of the tangled lives of two women whose intense, and unlikely, relationship will change them for ever.
Author Profile and Photo From Amazon:
© Una Roulston 2021.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, she is the youngest of eight children of Frances and Denis Donoghue (the literary critic). She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin, apart from one eye-opening year in New York at the age of ten. In 1990 she earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin (unfortunately, without learning to actually speak French). She moved to England, and in 1997 received her PhD (on the concept of friendship between men and women in eighteenth-century English fiction) from the University of Cambridge. From the age of 23, she has earned her living as a writer. After years of commuting between England, Ireland, and Canada, in 1998 she settled in London, Ontario, where she lives with Chris Roulston and their son Finn and daughter Una.
Photograph and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:
Amazon Author Page Goodreads Profile Author Official Website Facebook Profile
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