Historedia
Episode 1 of 3

Publication of Translation

When
1885
Where
London
Part of
John Ormsby publishes his English translation of Don Quixote

Ormsby published his English translation of Don Quixote in 1885, recognized as the most scholarly and accurate version up to that time.

The translation was noted for its precision, though Samuel Putnam later faulted Ormsby for duplicating Cervantes' pronouns so closely that sentence meanings sometimes became confusing. It surpassed the Jarvis translation, which had been the most frequently reprinted until about 1885.

Sources

  1. John Ormsby (translator) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-05-19
  2. Don Quixote Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-09

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.