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Ormsby - translator of Don Quixote John Ormsby (1829-1895) was a nineteenth-century British translator </wiki/Translator> . He is most famous for his 1885 English translation of Miguel de Cervantes </wiki/Miguel_de_Cervantes> ' Don Quixote de la Mancha </wiki/Don_Quixote_de_la_Mancha> , perhaps the most scholarly and accurate English translation of the novel up to that time. It is so precise that Samuel Putnam </wiki/Samuel_Putnam> , who published his own English translation of the novel in 1949, faults Ormsby for duplicating Cervantes' pronouns so closely that the meaning of the sentences sometimes becomes confusing. (Precision is what Wolfe would prize most.) 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 famous Great Books of the Western World </wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World> set. The contemporaneous translations by Alexander J. Duffield </w/index.php?title=Alexander_J._Duffield&action=edit&redlink=1> (1881) and Henry Edward Watts </w/index.php?title=Henry_Edward_Watts&action=edit&redlink=1> (1888) have been virtually forgotten. Ormsby's translation was the first English version of Cervantes's book to appear complete on the Internet. 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 choices that he himself made in translating the novel. 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 </wiki/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. [1] <> (I think that's what Wolfe intends. That we read his story and wish to imitate his hero. Like he read the stories of knights as a boy and wished to imitate the hero (like I did a long time ago too). That is also, I believe, why he chose a boy changed into a man (who is still a boy inside) as a hero. All the better that we readers recall our desire to imitate the hero while at the same time reflecting on our current lives and measuring how closely we reached the mark we set ourselves as boys . . . I think it was a beautiful thing indeed what he did in writing the book this way. It rang me like a bell I can tell you. Is "arthur ormsby" another name for King arthur?. Pendragon - but what was the common name, family name? . . . Any federal tax advice contained herein or in any attachment hereto is not intended to be used, and cannot be used, to (1) avoid penalties imposed under the Internal Revenue Code or (2) support the promotion or marketing of any transaction or matter. This legend has been affixed to comply with U.S. Treasury Regulations governing tax practice.

Well, I pointed out way-back-when that "pen" and "by" can both mean "near," while "orm" is an old spelling of "worm," or "dragon."

Right, Dan'l. I didn't think that there was any doubt about any of this. .