| |
Shop
| |  |
|
Best Sellers | | Home The Bront? Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR | |
|  | |  | | | The Bront? Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR | | SKU:
| | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | A novel about reconciling the mythology of romance with the reality of modern love.
Young scholar Sara Frost’s unsuccessful search for the lost love letters of Charlotte Brontë hasn’t won her any favors at her university, particularly now that the glamorous and self-promoting Princess Diana expert, Claire Vigee, has introduced her media-savvy exploits to the staid halls of academia. But it’s not until Sara’s fiancé suddenly leaves her that she begins to question her life’s vocation and is forced to reconcile the mythology of romance with the reality of modern love.
Sara’s jolt brings her to an unusual new world, one populated by the cheerfully amoral Frenchman Denis, a pair of New York eccentrics who pretend to live in the nineteenth century, a lapsed methadone addict and screenwriter, and a Hollywood producer who mistakenly assumes that the short, sad life of Charlotte Brontë has the makings of the next “feel good” movie blockbuster.
Along the way, Sara discovers that the life and writings of Charlotte Brontë may have taught her more than she ever guessed about the virtues of being a romantic with the heart of a pragmatist. The Brontë Project is an irreverent and comic look at love, loss, literature, pop culture, and the mysterious biographical similarities between Charlotte Brontë and Princess Diana. It’s a delightful novel about finding one’s way in the all-too-real world of love.
Also available as an eBook
From the Hardcover edition. | | | |
List Price:
| $9.95 | |
Our Price:
| $7.96
& eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25.
| |
You Save:
| $1.99 (19%)
|
| | |
|
| | Product Details | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 18 reviews |
| |
| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 Too modern for me Dec 09, 2008
The Brontë Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR Vandever certainly knows a lot about Charlotte Bronte, her family and her life -- so I suspect the Bronte scholar part is somewhat autobiographical. Once I got into it, this brief story kept my interest, but it is ultimately disappointing. The modern sensibility of young people searching for happiness but unable to love or commit to anything annoys the heck out of me. There is nothing wrong with loving and being loved, with settling down and going deep with someone. It's life's greatest adventure, and it's trivialized here into silliness. This will certainly find its way to being a movie -- it's very visual, and it's just as dissatisfying as most modern movies are.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Don't Think Charlotte Would Mind Apr 03, 2008
I waited about a week after reading the novel to sort my thoughts and write this review. I hold Charlotte Bronte (and her sisters) in high regard. Thus when I received The Bronte Project as a gift and read the chick-lit-sounding cover flap, I shuddered and worried and set the book on a shelf (for a year). While (finally) reading, I was pleasantly surprised that Jennifer Vandever did a great job with her research of the Brontes, did a great job with her plot, and did a great job of telling the story.
Vandever made Sara Frost out to be a sympathetic, wimpy, get-on-with-it-would-you-please kind of doormat at the beginning of the book who goes through a welcome character arc (I won't give it ALL away). She made Paul out to be the kind of idiotic moron you want to emasculate. She made the viper Claire Vigee out to be the shallow sort of feminist-wannabe that too many English departments hire these days in hopes of attracting more students (read: more tuition dollars). Plot twists that you saw coming a mile away twisted back on themselves (Claire's baby's "father", the accident toward the end of the book - again, I won't give it ALL away) to make you say "Aha! Nice twist!"
I enjoyed the jokes. I enjoyed the allusions to literature. I loved the Bronte epigraphs from letters and works, which were well-chosen to fit the theme of the chapters and showed the thought Vandever put into this project. She cared what she was doing when she wrote this novel. And for that, I commend her.
If you're looking for a history lesson on the Bronte family, this isn't it. Charlotte's story is abbreviated and woven in carefully. It doesn't bog down (forgive me for suggesting such a thing; Charlotte's story is actually incredible) the story of Sara Frost finding her way out of her tiresome present. If you're looking for a good feminine empowerment story, it's hidden in here. Funnily enough, it's not in the banner-waving Claire Vigee, but Vandever has laced it among the arc of Sara Frost. And so I definitely recommend The Bronte Project to anyone looking for a good afternoon's read.
From Sandy Lender, "Some days, I just want the dragon to win."
0 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Entertaining read Sep 23, 2007
I picked up Vandever's book while on vacation in Hawaii - I finished the novel I'd brought with me and came across this one in the hotel library. It looked like a good "beach read" - an entertaining love story that wouldn't require much thought - but proved to have more dimension.
The author draws parallels between the love life (and letters) of Charlotte Bronte, and that of Princess Diana, while contrasting both with the love lives of the two central, female characters: the quiet, plain-Jane Sara, and the fiery, sexual Claire. While the latter character proves to be over the top, the former undergoes a more realistic transformation as the story unfolds.
Mayra Calvani -- Curled Up With A Good Book Dec 03, 2006
Young Bronte scholar Sara Frost lives with her boyfriend Paul in New York City. Though many would envy her work, Sara is not happy with her university job and wished she could do something more challenging and glamorous. This restlessness extends to other areas of her life as well, especially her love life, for Paul has suddenly decide to break up and move to Paris, leaving her totally confused and vulnerable. His reason: their relationship lacks passion. At about the same time, glamorous and gorgeous Claire Vigee comes to the university as a Princess Diana scholar, making Sara even more unsure about her current job. Claire's exuberant feminist behaviour influences Sara, to the point that she begins to chance her thoughts and expectations. Propelled by these recent events, Sara ends up writing a Bronte script for a movie and gets romantically involved with a selfish, egotistical Hollywood producer. At the same time she is after an authentic Bronte letter that could make all the difference in her career.
Is there love in the real world? Readers will ask this question as they read this book, which is filled with slightly silly, sometimes hilarious dialogue and great quotes about love and relationships from Charlotte Bronte, such as "'...as to intense passion, I am convinced that it is no desirable feeling. In the first place, it seldom or never meets with a requital, and, in the second place, if it did, the feeling would be only temporary: it would last the honeymoon, and then, perhaps give place to disgust or indifference... Certainly this would be the case on the man's part; and on the woman's--God help her if she is left to love passionately and alone.'" Each chapter opens with a quote from Bronte.
The Bronte Project is the story of self discovery of a young and sensitive young woman. The first third of the book is intriguing and the characters draw you into their world, but some time later the story fails to deliver because of the continuous silly and what seems like senseless dialogue which goes on page after page. Indeed, if the author's intention was to portray these academic university people as shallow, she greatly succeeded. Though the reader will have to wonder, Are scholars really this empty headed? The novel is reminiscent of Tama Janowitz's Slaves of New York, however, whereas Janowitz's protagonist had tragic innocence, Sara comes across pathetically naïve and not as sympathetic. Nevertheless, readers interested in Charlotte Bronte might find in this one a rewarding read.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
An enjoyable read Sep 04, 2006
I picked this book up in an airport while flying to a conference - and yes, I picked it up quite simply because as an academic myself I enjoy stories about academics... This one is a fun read, with the added benefit of giving me a little more knowledge about the Brontë's life, which I found really interesting. The academic side of the novel wasn't always very convincing - I've never heard of a PhD student whose project is solely founded on the unlikely event that she find an unknown letter (where was this girl's advisor? what an un-finishable dissertation) - but I loved the raucous descriptions of Diana studies, and well, in general, it's an entertaining read, perfect if you have a few flights or want to curl up and read for fun after too much reading for work.
| |
| |
| |  | |  |
|
| You may also like ... |
