Young scholar Sara Frost's unsuccessful search for the lost love letters of Charlotte Bronte 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 Bronte has the makings of the next "feel good" movie blockbuster.
Along the way, Sara discovers that the life and writings of Charlotte Bronte may have taught her more than she ever guessed about the virtues of being a romantic with the heart of a pragmatist. The Bronte Project is an irreverent and comic look at love, loss, literature, pop culture, and the mysterious biographical similarities between Charlotte Bronte and Princess Diana. It's a delightful novel about finding one's way in the all-too-real world of love.