The Transit of VenusThe Transit of Venus is considered Shirley Hazzard's most brilliant novel. It tells the story of two orphan sisters, Caroline and Grace Bell, as they leave Australia to start a new life in post-war England. What happens to these young women -- seduction and abandonment, marriage and widowhood, love and betrayal -- becomes as moving and wonderful and yet as predestined as the transits of the planets themselves. Gorgeously written and intricately constructed, Hazzard's novel is a story of place: Sydney, London, New York, Stockholm; of time: from the fifties to the eighties; and above all, of women and men in their passage through the displacements and absurdities of modern life. |
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Adam Vail Algarve Angus Dance asked Avebury Circle beautiful called Captain Girling Caro Caro's Caroline Bell Caroline Vail Cartledge chair Charmian Thrale child Christian Thrale colour Cordelia Ware dacha dark Derbyshire Doctor Doctor Dance door Dora Dora's dress Elphinstone eyes face father feel felt fingers flowers gave girl glass Grace Thrale grey hair hand head imagine Ivory's Josie knew laughed leaned light looked Marmite morning Mullions never night once Paul Ivory Paul's Peverel play Pomfret Rex Ivory scarcely seen Sefton Thrale SHIRLEY HAZZARD side silence smiled sofa stared stood streak street talk Ted Tice tell Tertia there's things thought Tice's tion Tirpitz told took touched TRANSIT OF VENUS trees turned Valda Victor voice waiting walked wall watched window woman women young