The Brontë Project: A Novel of Passion, Desire, and Good PR
by Jennifer Vandever
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 64)
This was very clever. I love books (with satire) about scholars. Here's the Publisher's Weekly Review--Vandever's irreverent debut novel dips into Victorian letters for inspiration, dredging up romantic angst to frame and foil a love story set in the age of new media. Sara Frost, a timid Charlotte Brontë scholar at a fictionalized New York university, is dragging her feet on both her engagement and her thesis, rooting around for Charlotte's vanished letters of unrequited love. The staid campus ...more
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Read in January, 2008
recommends it for:
Chick-lit readers
Yea, this book sucked. It had potential, but I just did not like it after a while. The story is about Sara, a Bronte scholar, who is working on her thesis in order to get her PhD. The University, where she adjuncts, has just hired Claire, a controversial and famous Princess Diana expert, to start a Diana Studies at the school. Sara doesn't like Claire all that much after a panel they did together, and also because she's extremely superficial. She sees Claire talking to her fiance, Paul (I...more
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Read in August, 2007
Chit-lit is not a genre I venture into lightly, and I only stumbled across this one thinking it was more regular fiction than anything else. Originally interested in this novel due to the Bronte angle I was promptly disenchanted with plot, characters, and generally the entire book.
Sara Frost, a struggling academic is stunned when her boyfriend of 6 years leaves for Paris, claiming the need for time away, to discover himself. My enjoyment level for the novel dropped at least 2 stars at the w...more
Sara Frost, a struggling academic is stunned when her boyfriend of 6 years leaves for Paris, claiming the need for time away, to discover himself. My enjoyment level for the novel dropped at least 2 stars at the w...more
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I was drawn into this book because the opening was an amusing burlesque that resembled my experiences in grad school in the 90s: lonely and uncertain grad students longing for real life and trying to make their literature dissertations "relevant" and "marketable" while a few superstars jet around inexplicably making their mark with kooky, barely literary work on pop culture. The bete noire is a rude, glamorous visiting professor in Madonna Studies.
Alas, the Bronte scholar...more
Alas, the Bronte scholar...more
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Has a copy to sell/swap
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Read in July, 2008
I really wanted to like Sara Frost, the main character. But her journey seemed to short, and her motives a mixture of her very involved gothic romance fixation with the works of the Brontes (Anne, Emily and Charlotte...but mostly Charlotte).
I truly enjoyed the academic aspect of it. The letters, the research, the biographical information on the Brontes. However, I did not like Claire Vigee, psuedo-French Princess Diana scholar, feminist and sometime media whore.
Actually, I didn't like...more
I truly enjoyed the academic aspect of it. The letters, the research, the biographical information on the Brontes. However, I did not like Claire Vigee, psuedo-French Princess Diana scholar, feminist and sometime media whore.
Actually, I didn't like...more
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Read in July, 2007
A great summer read. I especially appreciated the light skewering of the academic world which I have been fortunate enough not to experience at the PhD level (yet). Sara, our hero, encounters ridiculous characters in the academic and movie biz as she struggles to complete her thesis on Charlotte Brontë and decide what she really wants out of a man.
I'd been trying to read heavier, more edifying titles of late and realized I've got too much on my mind for this. The Brontë Project was just what...more
I'd been trying to read heavier, more edifying titles of late and realized I've got too much on my mind for this. The Brontë Project was just what...more
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“A sweet read even a Wuthering Heights fan can love.” —Entertainment Weekly
I am not sure how to take this statement by EW, I love Wuthering Heights and while The Bronte Project isn't horrid I wouldn't push it on anyone. I would and do push Wuthering Heights on random people I see in banks and grocery store lines.
I am not sure how to take this statement by EW, I love Wuthering Heights and while The Bronte Project isn't horrid I wouldn't push it on anyone. I would and do push Wuthering Heights on random people I see in banks and grocery store lines.
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Read in October, 2007
this book started out interesting and promising, but failed to deliver on all counts. it ended up just dumb and implausible, and i was left wondering HOW we made it from the setting in the beginning to the final scene at the end. this book was mostly a waste of time and brain-power: blech!
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Read in December, 2006
I read this on a whim, hoping to remind myself of my past love for Bronte classics (Jane Eyre!!) but instead it reminded me of grad school. The details of researching and student life came back to me in a flash, while the character's often tragic desperation really moved me.
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I checked this book out b/c the other three I wanted were not available. Now I know why it was on the shelf. The writing is mediocre with a disjointed story line.
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Read in February, 2008
Interesting concept, original story. But somehow you never forget that the main character, Sara, is just that-a character in a book.
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Read in January, 2007
At first, I thought it was going to be chick-lit, but it turned out to be a really good novel about discovering oneself. Funny too.
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Read in January, 2008
Quite liked this, great for literature buffs. Though started out thinking she was British not American...
30 angst with a twist
30 angst with a twist
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Read in January, 2007
I liked the beginning but I found that by the end all the men fighting over her was totally contrived and unrealistic.
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Read in October, 2007
You'd think that a combination of self-discovery and literature would be more enthralling, but this just... wasn't.
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Read in September, 2007
recommends it for:
Elizabeth T., Amy, Sarah, Qainta
A fun and easy read. Not exactly brilliant, but totally enjoyable.
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Read in January, 2008
It was... ok. A whole lot of drama for nothing in the end.
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