---
product_id: 20957383
title: "The Transit of Venus"
brand: "shirley hazzard"
price: "VT9013"
currency: VUV
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/20957383-the-transit-of-venus
store_origin: VU
region: Vanuatu
---

# The Transit of Venus

**Brand:** shirley hazzard
**Price:** VT9013
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Transit of Venus by shirley hazzard
- **How much does it cost?** VT9013 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/20957383-the-transit-of-venus)

## Best For

- shirley hazzard enthusiasts

## Why This Product

- Trusted shirley hazzard brand quality
- Free international shipping included
- Worldwide delivery with tracking
- 15-day hassle-free returns

## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![The Transit of Venus - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/516OvfecppL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Challenging But Satisfying Read
  

*by J***A on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 25, 2013*

I share some of the criticisms of "Transit of Venus" voiced by others but I stuck through to the end and felt my patience was rewarded. I was truly surprised by the climax and the closing scene, which led me to reassess the entire book. I still have some reservations but generally admire the compassion and intelligence behind this finely crafted novel by Shirley Hazzard.I agree with others that the dialogue is cryptic and weighed down by too many obscure literary allusions. Whole conversations are conducted through metaphorical references to poetry or antiquity. It seemed overwritten and pretentious at times. A good editor should have reined that in. My bigger disappointment was with the passivity of the primary character, Caroline. I realize that she's our Venus stand-in, buffeted by love, but she was hard to get to know. Orphaned, adrift and with few friends, she only sparks when a man enters or re-enters her life. In many scenes, she's monosyllabic, uttering "Yes" or "No" as other characters - especially the men - expound at length. To the extent the author meant this as a critique of power relations between the sexes, it makes sense. Caroline's lack of agency reminded me of some of Edith Wharton's women who are trapped or defeated by forces beyond their control. Also like Wharton, Hazzard writes of her characters with detachment, which makes them hard to warm up to.Among the things I enjoyed about "Transit of Venus" was its careful plotting. It covers three decades in the lives of multiple characters, which includes some lulls in action (like real life), but it heads toward a dramatic conclusion. Ironies abound and there is some sharp humor, including withering depictions of bosses and bureaucrats. In the end what stayed with me was its broad canvas of lives lived, love won and lost, the complicated trajectories of people's journeys. Its examination of relationships, whether exploitive, unrequited, ephemeral or enduring, whether parent-child, sibling or sexual, is rich and thought-provoking. It explores goodness and venality, love and death, lust, abandonment, idealism, deception, regret, infidelity and fate. So despite stylistic flaws, "The Transit of Venus" left me with much to ponder.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    A Tale Of Two Women
  

*by J***N on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 22, 2005*

"The Transit of Venus" is an extraordinary piece of modern literature.  Hazzard has a special talent for combining words on a page.  This talent is truly and uniquely illustrated here.  Her similes and metaphors, her adjectives and adverbs, her incisive psychological look at the characters inner thought processes and pattern are all here beautifully put together.In this wonderful novel, Hazzard follows the love life, non-love life, adultery and non-adultery to illustrate the depth of human emotion.  Using world traveling characters, the book takes place all over the world, but mostly in England and the United States.  Hazzard is at her finest in some of her descriptive narrative about people's appearances and the physical realities, both beautiful and ugly, in the world about her characters.With painstaking excellence, the lives of the two girls are illustrated.  There marriages; various deceits and betrayals; various divorces and continuations, the pace and thoughts of the ladies' encounters and interactions are elucidated.  Hazzard makes these two ladies a huge metaphor for love and dislove.  And yet, her focus surely is on love.  The many forms it takes are sketched out by Hazzard like a Renoir.The book is highly recommended for those looking to read great Modern Literature.  Hazzard starts to reach her peak in this book, and only exceeds it in her most recent novel, "The Great Fire."  Those who wish to understand just a little better the phases of women's changing emotional patterns would be most enlightened by this work.

### ⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    This story was excruciatingly slow to start, and too quick to finish, but sandwiched in between is a very rewarding read.
  

*by R***T on Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 25, 2018*

The first seventy or so pages of this book are difficult to get through. The first couple pages begin to set the scene, and then those characters which have been introduced are delved into by way of flashbacks for a solid sixty or so pages. The story was not grounded enough in the present for me to appreciate the past, and I was left off balance for the first fifth of the book. By the time I finished all the flashbacks, I had forgotten about the present-day characters, and returning to real-time narration was both a shock and a relief. The extended flashback period precludes understanding of what type of story is being told, and left me off balance. I found I could not read more than twenty or thirty pages at once, losing interest frequently, and did not understand the point of the section. At this point also, I found the style inappropriate. It is written in mimicry of Dickens and his contemporaries, but does not quite achieve the feeling they cultivate due to construction. Mark Twain spoke of this effect in language: "The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter. ’tis the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." Here as a reader I am both conscious of what is being attempted, and the failure to achieve it. The expectation of the lighting against the reality of the lightning bug. The first fifth of this book is frustrating as it fails to give any expectation for the story besides disappointment.After that, the story really takes off. The just-missed feeling becomes an apt use of old-style writing. The almost is gone, and reading is pleasant on a sentence and section level, as well as that of the word. The characters' relationships weave together in unexpected and complimentary ways. Caro comes out as the definite focus of the novel, and she is a worthy character to follow. In this, too, the styles of yesteryear are cultivated with the good, strong, and long suffering female protagonist. The main set of characters each receive a chapter or section devoted to exploring their humanity, and inner strength or lack thereof. All are complex and well shown, and the order in which each moment is given serves to cast starker light on the relative failures and virtues or those portrayed. All of this is very well done.At the end, Caro's emotions are not believable--they develop too quickly. More should have been done to lead up to her feelings, or bring them out slowly. Now I complain that not enough time was given: only a few pages.This story was excruciatingly slow to start, and too quick to finish, but sandwiched in between is a very rewarding read. I rate this book 5/10.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Transit of Venus
- SUPERINTELLIGENCE: Paths, Dangers, Strategies
- Blitz Scaling

---

## Why Shop on Desertcart?

- 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016
- 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories
- 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price
- 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members)
- 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection
- ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews

**Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/20957383-the-transit-of-venus](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/20957383-the-transit-of-venus)

---

*Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu*
*Store origin: VU*
*Last updated: 2026-02-13*