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Book club questions for Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue explore the themes of love, identity, societal expectations, and the challenges of LGBTQ+ relationships in the 19th century.
This is a beautifully crafted and extensively researched historical novel that delves into the intertwined lives of two young women. It’s a profoundly moving and richly detailed narrative, offering a unique and captivating take on the concept of love.
What were your impressions of this novel? ✨
Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue
I hope you will enjoy the thoughtfully crafted book club questions tailored for Learned by Heart in this blog post. Further below you will also find a downloadable PDF version I’ve prepared for your book clubs (available at the bottom of the post), along with supplementary suggestions for books that share similar themes and narratives.
Let me know if you find these book club questions useful. I’m excited to hear your unique perspectives during your book club discussions!
Book Club Questions | Additional Recommendations | Printable List
About the Story
Learned by Heart is based on the true story of two girls, Eliza Raine and Anne Lister, who meet at a boarding school when they are fourteen. Eliza, an orphan heiress from India, and Anne, a brilliant and rebellious tomboy, fall deeply in love despite the societal constraints of their time.
Drawing from extensive research and Anne Lister’s journals, the book explores the emotional intensity and psychological complexities of their forbidden love.
It’s a gripping and passionate tale of love and heartbreak, showcasing the enduring bond between Anne Lister and Eliza Raine.
About the Author
Emma Donoghue, born in Dublin, Ireland, in October 1969, is a prolific writer known for her work in various genres, with a focus on fiction.
She earned a first-class honours BA in English and French from University College Dublin and later received her PhD from the University of Cambridge. Donoghue has been a full-time writer since the age of 23, with a diverse body of work that includes novels, short stories, and plays.
Her most famous work, Room, tells the story of a young boy and his mother held captive in a small room and has been adapted into a successful film and stage play.
Emma’s ability to seamlessly blend historical research with compelling storytelling has made her a celebrated figure in contemporary literature.
Book Club Questions for Learned by Heart
Disclaimer: the following discussion questions contain spoilers, so proceed with caution if you haven’t finished the book yet.
- Much of Learned by Heart draws upon the five-million-word journals by Anne Lister, who was a real historical figure often considered one of the ‘first modern lesbians.’ What can a journal teach us as a historical document? Do you keep a journal, and if so, how do you think your words would be read in 200 years? Why is it important to write one’s story, even without the intent of sharing it with others?”
- Eliza gets her pen taken away from her at the end of each letter. How may this be representative of a larger question, about who gets to write and why? Why tell this story from Eliza’s perspective, instead of Anne’s?
- Discuss the title of the novel. What does it mean to ‘learn by heart’? Is it to memorize something, as the girls do at their school, or, as Eliza says on page 223, is it to discover something that it feels like you’ve invented? On page 131, Lister says ‘…if the mind’s constantly trained to remember rather than to reason, won’t the faculty of memory become overdeveloped and the mind be left lopsided?‘ Are memories a reliable source of knowledge about ourselves? What has Eliza learned by the end of the novel? Did you have to learn anything as a child that you have memorized ‘by heart’?
- Is this story a tragedy or a triumph? Does Raine make the right choice in letting Lister go?
- This is a story about first love, but also about friendship. On page 262, Mercy walks in on Raine and Lister engaged in their love affair. Why don’t you think she shares what she has seen? Do you think the other girls suspect the nature of Raine and Lister’s relationship? How might the social dynamics between the girls mirror the society they live in?
- Why does this story still resonate in the current moment? Why is it important to tell the stories of those who may not have been able to tell their own?
- Mercy, one of the other girls at the school, inadvertently discovers Eliza and Anne’s secret. Why do you think she keeps their secret? How do the other girls’ perceptions of Eliza and Anne’s relationship reflect the societal norms of the time?
- The story is set in an early 19th-century girls’ boarding school in York, England. How does the setting influence the lives of the characters, especially Eliza and Anne? What role does the school play in shaping their identities?
- The book alternates between the past, when Eliza and Anne were at the boarding school, and the future, with Eliza in a psychiatric hospital. How do these two timelines complement each other in understanding the characters and their journeys? What impact does the asylum have on Eliza’s mental state and her recollection of the past?
- Eliza and Anne’s relationship evolves from friendship to a deep and passionate love. How do societal norms and expectations of the time affect their ability to openly express their feelings for each other? How do they navigate the challenges of their forbidden love?
- The book delves into themes of identity, race, and class. How do Eliza’s biracial heritage and Anne’s non-conformity challenge the social norms of the era? How do they each grapple with their unique identities?
- Anne Lister’s diaries play a significant role in the narrative. How does the use of Anne’s journals enhance the storytelling? What can journals and personal writings reveal about historical figures and their inner lives?
- Discuss the character of Anne Lister. What makes her a compelling and unconventional figure for her time? How does she influence Eliza’s growth and self-discovery?
- The author’s note at the end of the book provides historical context and insights into the real-life inspirations for the story. How does this additional information enhance your appreciation of the novel? Were there any historical details or facts that surprised you or deepened your understanding of the characters and their era?
Additional Recommendations
Hope you enjoyed the book club discussion questions and reading guide for Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue!
Here are some more of my book club recommendations related to this book:
The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff
A taut and electrifying novel from celebrated bestselling author Lauren Groff, about one spirited girl alone in the wilderness, trying to survive.
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her.
Lauren Groff’s new novel is at once a thrilling adventure story and a penetrating fable about trying to find a new way of living in a world succumbing to the churn of colonialism. The Vaster Wilds is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how—and if—we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.
Haven by Emma Donoghue
In this beautiful story of adventure and survival from the New York Times bestselling author of Room, three men vow to leave the world behind them as they set out in a small boat for an island their leader has seen in a dream, with only faith to guide them.
In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks—young Trian and old Cormac—he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery.
Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds, and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?
The Fraud by Zadie Smith
From acclaimed and bestselling novelist Zadie Smith, a kaleidoscopic work of historical fiction set against the legal trial that divided Victorian England, about who gets to tell their story—and who gets to be believed
It is 1873. Mrs. Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper—and cousin by marriage—of a once-famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years.
Mrs. Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also sceptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr. Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades, in which nothing is quite what it seems.
Andrew Bogle, meanwhile, grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation, Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story.
The “Tichborne Trial”—wherein a lower-class butcher from Australia claimed he was in fact the rightful heir of a sizable estate and title—captivates Mrs. Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs. Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr. Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task. . . .
Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity and the mystery of “other people.”
Printable PDF
Feel free to distribute these discussion questions to your book club members before your meeting. Simply click the link below to download and print the PDF file.
Happy reading! ❤️