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MR Coles
'A nun passed as I walked to the school. I touched her with my eyes and believed she blushed. Avalanches of melting snow fell from the rooftop and released a thud. No other sound, no one to be seen, the only sound was the thawing snow. The Headmaster and Mrs. Draper were out of town, far away in deepest Exmoor surrounded by fellow ghouls; thank God for that. I decided to take charge. I was to be the Headmaster for the week. Clifford Coles, Headmaster of Falston; it had a ring to it.' And so we follow the life of Clifford Coles, prep school master, fantasist, alcoholic. If there is a place Coles should not be, it is at an English boarding school, responsible for shaping young lives. He would remaining adamant that the boys would have no better teacher and that his life had been unfairly judged. A disturbing novel that blazes with originality, Mr Coles is a searing study of modern amorality. It compels our immediate response and serious reflection.
Hardcover
First published April 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 18, 2019
Mr Coles was just a teacher. He had aspirations to be headmaster of the school he taught at; to rule over his kingdom, so to speak. At first glance, it seemed that Clifford Coles was an average man with average desires to advance his career and live a happy and healthy future. But wolves often dress in sheep’s clothing. And even though Coles did not think himself to be a wolf, he was. He ripped apart a fragile body and left a childhood innocence to rot and decay without ever having considered his actions as despicable or himself as a monster for what he had done.
While Mr Coles was presented as an educator at the start of this novel, as the story progressed his image distorted and shattered to pieces to reveal the true nature of the man behind the mask. Mr Coles is a predator. He is a pedophile, and he soon develops a dangerous obsession with a boy known only as “D.” He grooms the boy by getting close to his father and never missing an opportunity to praise the child on all of his accomplishments, no matter how small they were, and to make him feel special. Soon the “friendship” he has built with D evolves into a sexual relationship.
It is obvious to us that what Mr Coles is doing is wrong but the man in question believes that he loves “D.” That his desire for him is pure and that D is consenting to be involved in a romantic relationship with him every time he calls upon him to climb into bed with him. But D is only eleven years old and we can see how confused and unhappy he becomes as Mr Coles continues to “love” him night after night.
It isn’t until he is confronted with the truth of how he has destroyed that which he claimed to love most of all does Mr Coles realize what kind of man he really is. He does not get any of the things he longed for in the end and he goes to his grave still obsessed with D and longing to be with him 20 years after his first encounter with him. Dr Coles is a Humbert Humbert. And D is his Lolita.
I didn’t necessarily enjoy this book due to it’s subject matter and the fact that D never thought that what Mr Coles was doing to him was wrong. However, I can say that this book was impossible to put down and I highly recommend it to fans of Lolita or Death in Venice. There are a million Mr Coles in the world; a million Humbert Humberts. And knowing that truly scares the living shit out of me.
While Mr Coles was presented as an educator at the start of this novel, as the story progressed his image distorted and shattered to pieces to reveal the true nature of the man behind the mask. Mr Coles is a predator. He is a pedophile, and he soon develops a dangerous obsession with a boy known only as “D.” He grooms the boy by getting close to his father and never missing an opportunity to praise the child on all of his accomplishments, no matter how small they were, and to make him feel special. Soon the “friendship” he has built with D evolves into a sexual relationship.
It is obvious to us that what Mr Coles is doing is wrong but the man in question believes that he loves “D.” That his desire for him is pure and that D is consenting to be involved in a romantic relationship with him every time he calls upon him to climb into bed with him. But D is only eleven years old and we can see how confused and unhappy he becomes as Mr Coles continues to “love” him night after night.
It isn’t until he is confronted with the truth of how he has destroyed that which he claimed to love most of all does Mr Coles realize what kind of man he really is. He does not get any of the things he longed for in the end and he goes to his grave still obsessed with D and longing to be with him 20 years after his first encounter with him. Dr Coles is a Humbert Humbert. And D is his Lolita.
I didn’t necessarily enjoy this book due to it’s subject matter and the fact that D never thought that what Mr Coles was doing to him was wrong. However, I can say that this book was impossible to put down and I highly recommend it to fans of Lolita or Death in Venice. There are a million Mr Coles in the world; a million Humbert Humberts. And knowing that truly scares the living shit out of me.
July 29, 2025
Astaire deserves more praise for this novel. Fascinating, equally disturbing and unsettling. Entering Clifford Coles’s mind lends itself, of course, to parallels of Humbert Humbert, and the comparison is only fair. Coles is a disturbed, obsessive pedophile, and his lust for a student, referred to as “D,” takes down both their lives just like Humbert and Dolores. We don’t entirely know D’s fate, however; and, that mystery is a tragic consequence to the unspeakable abuse he suffers at the hands of his mentor.
There is a quietness to this novel that I admire. It’s well-paced and isolated; muted in all the ways that feel appropriate, given its subject matter. Coles’s delusions, his obsessions, his alcoholism are all an eerie tidal wave throughout the story, and it’s a solid depiction of a predator whose eventual comeuppance isn’t necessarily rewarding but painfully realistic and well-executed.
There is a quietness to this novel that I admire. It’s well-paced and isolated; muted in all the ways that feel appropriate, given its subject matter. Coles’s delusions, his obsessions, his alcoholism are all an eerie tidal wave throughout the story, and it’s a solid depiction of a predator whose eventual comeuppance isn’t necessarily rewarding but painfully realistic and well-executed.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews