FIELDING, Henry (1707-1754). Tom Jones ou l'enfant trouvé; imité de Fielding par M. de La Place. Paris: Didot l'aìné, 1784. 4 vols., 18° (132 x 73mm). (Occasional light browning). Contemporary French red morocco gilt, flat spines with title and vol. number in two compartments and massed small tools surrounding circular green onlays in the four others, one onlay carrying the set numbers '61-64', covers with geometrical panelling and added lettering on front: 'Taken out of the Imperial Library at Malmaison when it was occupied by British troops A.D. 1815', gilt turn-ins and blue silk liners, gilt edges (extremities lightly rubbed, corners a little bumped). Provenance: Napoleon and Joséphine Bonaparte -- Grantham (signed 25-line memo on front blank, confessing to his theft of the work from the Imperial Library) -- Wrest Park (bookplate).

FIELDING, Henry (1707-1754). Tom Jones ou l'enfant trouvé; imité de Fielding par M. de La Place. Paris: Didot l'aìné, 1784. 4 vols., 18° (132 x 73mm). (Occasional light browning). Contemporary French red morocco gilt, flat spines with title and vol. number in two compartments and massed small tools surrounding circular green onlays in the four others, one onlay carrying the set numbers '61-64', covers with geometrical panelling and added lettering on front: 'Taken out of the Imperial Library at Malmaison when it was occupied by British troops A.D. 1815', gilt turn-ins and blue silk liners, gilt edges (extremities lightly rubbed, corners a little bumped). Provenance: Napoleon and Joséphine Bonaparte -- Grantham (signed 25-line memo on front blank, confessing to his theft of the work from the Imperial Library) -- Wrest Park (bookplate).

A UNIQUE ASSOCIATION COPY of de La Place's French abridgement, with a frank confession to its theft from Malmaison by a British officer. Joséphine de Beauharnais bought the Château de Malmaison for herself and her husband in 1799, they transformed the estate, and the library displayed their interests and intellect. After their divorce in 1809, Napoleon had ceased to be part of life at Malmaison, but he took residence there in 1815 after Waterloo. In his memorandum, Grantham describes how, 'in 1815 immediately after the battle of Waterloo', he accompanied Lt. Gen. Sir L[owry] Cole (1772-1842) as 'his extra Aide-de-Camp' when he left London to take command of the 2nd division of Wellington's occupying army at Neuilly. A few days after their arrival Cole 'went to see Gen. Sir J. Vandelear, then quartered at Malmaison, and I accompanied him. The place was occupied by British troops. Indefensible as the act was, the temptation to bring away a proof of that fact, was too strong; and I took these books out of the Imperial Library'. (4)