Learning by Heart: A Poignant Account of Teaching in Rural Newfoundland in the 1950s

R. Gordon Moyles is professor emeritus of English at the University of
Alberta, the co-author of Imperial Dreams and Colonial Realities:
British Views of Canada, 1880–1914, and the author of The Salvation
Army and the Public.

In any work of fiction that strikes a chord in the reader’s mind, it
is difficult to tell where fact ends and fiction begins. In Angela
Collins’s Learning by Heart, it is virtually impossible. Although a
fictional memoir, these stories are based on the author’s years as a
teacher in rural Newfoundland in the 1940s and ’50s. As a teacher, she
would have been highly respected in the community and privy to many
difficult—and sometimes tragic—situations. Where possible, the
secrets Collins learned were secrets kept. Her understanding and
compassion for the people with whom she lived and worked is evident in
warm and engaging prose that never lapses into mere sentimentality. The
stories of the people themselves—their surroundings, the communities
in which they lived, and the events that colored and often shaped their
lives—are told with insight and humor, giving the reader a realistic
picture of life as it was lived in many Newfoundland outports in the
mid-20th century. Learning by Heart is a most enjoyable and satisfying
book.