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 of his introductory analysis, a longer version published in the original 1885 edition of his translation, in which he severely criticized Cervantes's writing style, and a more concise version (the one published in most editions of the translation), in which some of the criticisms have been omitted.