Reading George Szirtes

George Szirtes is a leading figure in contemporary poetry in England and in Hungary, the country of his birth. His poems explore - in a wide variety of complex, skilfully handled forms - his origins, his life, and his critical engagements with works by other poets and artists. They offer powerful and moving meditations on the roles and functions of the poet in the modern world. "Reading George Szirtes" offers the first sustained analysis of Szirtes' work, mapping his development chronologically and thematically, and paying close attention to form and technique in its analysis of each poem.Haunted by his family's knowledge and experience of war, occupation and the Holocaust, as well as by loss, danger and exile, all of Szirtes' poetry covers universal themes: love, desire and illusion; loyalty and betrayal; history, art and memory; humanity and truth. Throughout his work, there is a conflict between two states of mind, the possibility of happiness and apprehension of disaster. These are played out especially in his celebrated long poems and extended sequences, "The Photographer in Winter", "Metro", "The Courtyards", "An English Apocalypse" and "Reel". John Sears offers detailed and lucid readings of these and other key poems - including Szirtes' most recent poetry - relating them to historical events and to work by other poets. "Reading George Szirtes" is a critical companion volume to George Szirtes' "New and Collected Poems". Both books are published on Szirtes' 60th birthday.

John Sears is senior lecturer in English Literature at Manchester Metropolitan University. His books include his critical study Reading George Szirtes (Bloodaxe Books, 2008), Stephen King's Gothic (University of Wales Press, 2011), and he co-edited 4 saints in 3 acts: A snapshote of the American avant-garde in the 1930s (Manchester University Press, 2017) with Patricia Allmer. His recent essays address contemporary fiction and poetry by writers like Maggie Gee, Neil Bartlett and W.G. Sebald, and he has published essays and delivered papers on George Szirtes’ poetry at universities across Europe.