New College Library holds a fine edition of 1717 of Alexander Pope’s works, and it nicely illustrates a modern tale of redemption. A reader in our library purloined c. 1980 this copy’s splendid, engraved frontispiece portrait by George Vertue (1684–1756) of the poet, only to return the frontispiece anonymously on 18 October 2010—along with a note in which they confessed, ‘I’m thoroughly ashamed of myself, and I return it with apologies’.

The Works of Mr. Alexander Pope (London, 1717)
New College Library, Oxford, NB.91.18

New College Library and Archives, Oxford