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y separately published work icon The Transit of Venus single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 1980... 1980 The Transit of Venus
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Notes

  • Also published in braille and sound recording formats.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Viking ,
      1980 .
      Extent: 337p.
      ISBN: 0670724262
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Macmillan ,
      1980 .
      Extent: 337p.
      Note/s:
      • Publisher's note: A portion of this book originally appeared in The New Yorker.
      ISBN: 0333277511
    • Ringwood, Ringwood - Croydon - Kilsyth area, Melbourne - East, Melbourne, Victoria,: Penguin , 1981 .
      Extent: 337p.
      ISBN: 0140058931
    • Harmondsworth, Middlesex,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Penguin ,
      1981 .
      Extent: 337p.
      Reprinted: 1982 , 1983 twice
      ISBN: 0140057951
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Playboy Press ,
      1981 .
      Extent: 336p.
      ISBN: 087216859x
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Penguin ,
      1990 .
      Extent: 337p.
      ISBN: 0140107479
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Virago ,
      1995 .
      Extent: 337p.
      ISBN: 1860491812
      Series: y separately published work icon Virago Modern Classics Virago (publisher), 1978- Z1498171 1978 series - publisher Number in series: 405
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Virago ,
      2004 .
      Extent: 337p.
      ISBN: 1844081443
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Virago ,
      2004 .
      Extent: 337p.
      ISBN: 1844081443
Alternative title: Il pasaggio di Venere
Language: Italian

Works about this Work

Shirley Hazzard’s The Transit of Venus and the Question of Value Suzie Gibson , 2023 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Literary Studies , 31 October vol. 38 no. 2 2023;

'Considering literature’s value is a difficult task in that it asks one to quantify an aesthetic form that by its very nature thwarts measurement. This does not mean that literature is an ineffable phenomenon. The value of literature comes from its ability to foster a sense of communal belonging and provide a unique window into the lives of others. The imaginary worlds of novels in particular enable one to inhabit vast linguistic spheres that generate sensations beyond the everyday. Shirley Hazzard’s novel The Transit of Venus (1980) provides remarkable evidence of literature’s ability to conjure such worlds and experiences. Her technique of ‘prolepsis’ installs the future into the present in unpredictable ways, making The Transit of Venus a powerful example of how novels can transport readers beyond themselves and into imaginative spaces of deep reflection. This novel demands close analysis because it is a carefully crafted work of fiction that offers a rich, even painterly sense of the world. It is also a novel that at times adopts an aerial perspective that crosses both physical and disembodied realms – landscapes of the body and of the mind. As in life, the generosity of Hazzard’s writing is antithetical to naive or simplistic outcomes, as the subtlety of her prose invites both readerly speculation and contemplation. I argue that Hazzard’s novel is a deeply generous fiction that awakens in readers a profound sense of interiority as one is encouraged to ponder the many facets and dimensions of The Transit of Venus.' (Publication abstract)

Shirley Hazzard : The Transit of Venus Catherine Pardey , 2023 single work review
— Appears in: The Newtown Review of Books , May 2023;

— Review of The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard , 1980 single work novel
'The recent release of Brigitta Olubas’ biography of Shirley Hazzard has prompted Catherine Pardey to reflect on Hazzard’s 1980 novel The Transit of Venus.' 
A Modern Classic Addresses Elemental Questions About Love and Power Parul Sehgal , 2021 single work review
— Appears in: The New York Times , 15 March 2021;

— Review of The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard , 1980 single work novel

'It’s a fact readily acknowledged that one can encounter some books simply too late in life to appreciate — or, in some cases, even tolerate — them. The famous examples include “The Catcher in the Rye,” most of the Beats, all of Anaïs Nin. But I’m more curious about the counterpoint: Those books said to require experience, and age, to unlock.' (Introduction)

“Only for Love” : Expatriatism, Amateur Reading and Shirley Hazzard’s Post-war World Brigitta Olubas , 2020 single work criticism
— Appears in: JASAL , vol. 20 no. 2 2020;

'Alongside Shirley Hazzard’s largely European literary coordinates are also to be found traces of other more obscure figures, and of her persistent return to other sites and cultures. If the biographical narrative of her expatriatism arcs from Sydney to Manhattan via Naples and Capri, then Hiroshima, which she visited briefly in 1947 at age 16, and which reappears in her writing as a chronotope of post-nuclear modernity, is a trace of other possible expatriate trajectories. This essay examines this chronotope through and in light of Hazzard’s long-standing friendship with two US-born scholars of Japanese literature: Ivan Morris, one of the founders of US Amnesty International, and Donald Keene, a Japanese citizen resident in Tokyo until his death in 2019, and will examine the ways these friendships and the careers of these two fellow writers, both also expatriate for much of their lives, bore on Hazzard’s understanding of her own place in the world.' (Publication abstract)

Australien Russell McDougall , 2019 single work criticism
— Appears in: Verdenslitteraturer : Introduktion til litteraturen uden for Europa 2019; (p. 253-284)
Pick of the Week Cameron Woodhead , 2004 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 14 August 2004; (p. 4)

— Review of The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard , 1980 single work novel
Conventions of Presence Peter Pierce , 1981 single work review
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 40 no. 1 1981; (p. 106-113)

— Review of Homesickness Murray Bail , 1980 single work novel ; Honour, and, Other People's Children : Two Stories Helen Garner , 1980 selected work novella ; Honour Helen Garner , 1980 single work novella ; Other People's Children Helen Garner , 1980 single work novella ; The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard , 1980 single work novel ; Who Shot George Kirkland? : A Novel About the Nature of Truth Frank Hardy , 1981 single work novel
Untitled John Beston , 1980 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 5 July 1980; (p. 21)

— Review of The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard , 1980 single work novel
Chance's Encounters Eugene Chesnick , 1980 single work review
— Appears in: The Nation , 24 May vol. 230 no. 20 1980; (p. 633-634)

— Review of The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard , 1980 single work novel
Untitled J. Cotton , 1980 single work review
— Appears in: Vogue Australia , October 1980; (p. 112-113)

— Review of The Transit of Venus Shirley Hazzard , 1980 single work novel
Shirley Hazzard in Naples John Slavin , 2004 single work biography
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , August no. 263 2004; (p. 9-10)
The Transit of Venus : Shirley Hazzard (1931- ) Jane Gleeson-White , 2007 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Classics : Fifty Great Writers and Their Celebrated Works 2007; (p. 142-246)
Reading Shirley Hazzard's The Transit of Venus II i "There's always", Lucy Dougan , 2008 single work poetry
— Appears in: White Clay 2008; (p. 18-19) "22" 2009; (p. 4)
Visual Art and Bourgeois Forms in Shirley Hazzard's Fiction Brigitta Olubas , 2008 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southerly , vol. 68 no. 1 2008; (p. 13-23)
Constructing the Metropolitan Homeland : The Literatures of the White Settler Societies of New Zealand and Australia Janet Wilson , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Comparing Postcolonial Diasporas 2009; (p. 125-145)

Awards

2007 shortlisted Prix Femina (France) Roman Etranger (Foreign novel) Shortlisted for the 2007 translation by Claude Demanuelli.
1981 finalist National Book Awards (USA)
1980 winner National Book Critics' Circle (USA) Fiction
Last amended 1 Feb 2018 16:11:20
Settings:
  • London,
    c
    England,
    c
    c
    United Kingdom (UK),
    c
    Western Europe, Europe,
  • New York (City), New York (State),
    c
    United States of America (USA),
    c
    Americas,
  • Stockholm,
    c
    Sweden,
    c
    Scandinavia, Western Europe, Europe,
  • Sydney, New South Wales,
  • ca. 1950-1980
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