The Transit of Venus

For the astronomical phenomenon, see Transit of Venus. For other uses, see Transit of Venus (disambiguation).

The Transit of Venus

First edition
Author	Shirley Hazzard
Language	English
Publisher	Viking Press
Publication date	1980
Publication place	Australia
Media type	Print
Pages	352 (first edition)
ISBN	9780140107470 (first edition)

The Transit of Venus is a 1980 novel written by Australian author Shirley Hazzard. It won the 1980 National Book Critics Circle Award.[1]

Overview

Two orphaned Australian sisters, Caroline and Grace Bell, emigrate to England in the 1950s. A young astronomer, Ted Tice, falls in love with Caroline, and the next thirty years of his life are dedicated to his pursuit of her; however, Caroline prefers the unscrupulous Paul Ivory, a playwright. Meanwhile, Grace settles into marriage with officious bureaucrat Christian Thrale.[2][3]

The Sydney Review of Books wrote of the novel:

The novel is about the greater humanity that one gains by refusing glibness, resisting the cheap shot. Ted Tice rejects the accidental (and thus cheap, illusory and illegitimate) power offered by merely perceiving another’s weakness and exploiting it. The novel is a call to resist vulgar power, the type gained through reduction, through first impressions, through stereotype or quick certainty. For a person of Ted’s moral fibre, the end will never justify the means. The only advantage he will accept is that bestowed on him by his own strength of character.[4]

References

1. "A Look Back at Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus". National Book Critics Circle. 25 January 2008. Archived from the original on 27 December 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
2. Specktor, Matthew (19 December 2016). "Shirley Hazzard, 1931–2016". The Paris Review. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
3. Sehgal, Parul (9 March 2021). "A Modern Classic Addresses Elemental Questions About Love and Power". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
4. Wood, Charlotte (21 April 2015). "Across the face of the sun". Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 19 March 2023.

General references

• McClatchy, J.D. (Spring 2005). "Shirley Hazzard, The Art of Fiction No. 185". The Paris Review. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
• de Kretser, Michelle (8 March 2013). "Book of a lifetime: The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard". The Independent. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
• Friend, Tad (12 December 2011). "The Year in Reading: Shirley Hazzard's "The Transit of Venus"". The New Yorker. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
• Robinson, Roxana (15 September 2013). "Love Story Electrifies Beneath The Silhouette 'Of Venus'". NPR. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
• Banville, John (12 October 2003). "Venus in Transit". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
• Loercher, Diana (10 March 1980). "Characters like planets in orbits around the sun". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
• "The Transit of Venus". Kirkus Reviews. 1 February 1980. Retrieved 23 October 2016.
• Wieland, James (1983). "'Antipodean Eyes': Ways of Seeing in Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus". Kunapipi. 5 (2): 36–49. Retrieved 23 October 2016.