When Lister arrives at the school, Raine’s world and personality are transformed. “She’s trained herself to wake at seven,” Donoghue writes, “just before the bell.” Aware of unspoken racial bias (against people who are part Indian and part English), she wants to blend in – to stay out of trouble in this school with its many rules. Prior to Lister’s arrival, Raine is mousy, rule abiding.īecause Raine’s from India, she sleeps alone in a small room. Raine arrives at the Manor School before Lister. Perhaps, for this reason, “Learned by Hand” focuses on Raine’s point of view. Through “Gentleman Jack” and her diaries (which are being digitalized), Lister, with her brilliance and charismatic personality, has become a queer culture icon. After her father and mother die, she’s left an orphan with a small inheritance. ![]() ![]() In an author’s note, Donoghue writes of a letter of Raine’s that refers to her as having “sprung from an illicit connection.” Another letter calls Raine a “lady of colour.” He and an Indian woman, whom he did not legally marry, had Raine. Her father, who was English, was a surgeon with the East India Company. Raine was born in Madras (now Chennai) in India. Much of the novel takes place in 1805-1806, when, at age 14 and 15, Lister and Raine were students at Miss Hargrave’s Manor School, a boarding school for girls in York. ![]() Raine is believed to have been Lister’s first lover. “Learned by Heart,” an intriguing historical novel by Emma Donoghue is based on the true story of the queer relationship of Lister and Eliza Raine.
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