the author. In 1876, he collected in volume form his Stray Papers, including some amusing pieces, 'Sandford and Merton,' 'Mme. Tussaud's,' and 'Swift on the Turf.' In 1879, he published a translation from Spanish of the Poem of the Cid, dedicated to Pascual de Gayangos. Died 30th October 1895 - buried Ramsgate Cemetery. Ramsgate, Kent. United Kingdom. His translation of Don Quixote Ormsby's translation has seen more editions than any other nineteenth-century English version of the novel, having been included in the Heritage Book Club series of great novels, and in the Great Books of the Western World set. The contemporaneous translations by Alexander James Duffield (1881) and Henry Edward Watts (1888) have been virtually forgotten. Ormsby not only translates the novel; he provides a long and informative introduction with a brief analysis of all the major English versions of "Don Quixote" up to then (except for the Duffield version), as well as explaining the conceptual choices that he himself made in translating the novel, in terms of affectation, for example, or using the simplest everyday language. He also features a short biography of Cervantes in his introduction, as well as providing his own controversial analysis of the work. Ormsby refutes the widely accepted view that "Don Quixote" is a sad novel with allegorical meanings and a pessimistic philosophy, and states that because Cervantes himself declared it to be a satire against books of chivalry, it is primarily only that, although it does contain much observation on human character. Ormsby also refutes, in addition, the commonly held view that Don Quixote is an innately noble person, stating that his nobility of character is an attitude that he assumes simply to imitate his knightly heroes. An 1886 edition of the Quarterly Review, published only a year after Ormsby's translation was first issued, took him to task for his limited interpretation of the novel and of Don Quixote's character, while praising the accuracy of the translation. Even while referring to Don Quixote as a "great classic", Ormsby was far from an unquestioning admirer of Cervantes's work, at times criticizing the author's writing habits and linguistic style. He wrote, for example: “Never was great work so neglected by its author. That it was written carelessly, hastily, and by fits and starts, was not always his fault, but it seems clear he never read what he sent to the press.”. He wrote two versions