English translation of "doveva...una specie di Napoleone edizione ta" - "a kind of miniature Napoleon"

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155 months ago

Barbara Cochran (a guest user) asked this question:

Language pair:	Italian > English
Subject:	Other
Level of diffculty:	Easy / medium
Word or term in question:	doveva...una specie di Napoleone edizione ta
Context:	Che cosa doveva fare in quelle condizioni? Doveva, per far piacere al signor David Darrah,
Keywords:	...o al sottoscritto, o peggio ancora, al colonnello Robert McCormick, una sepcie di Napoleone edizione tascabile, ostile all'Italia che non conosceva se non attraverso rapporti che pretendeva riflettessero le sue idee personali, e che is suoi correspondenti gli spendivano in tal forma per non perdere il posto, venir meno agli ordini ricevuti, cioè al suo dovere? Talking about the behavoir of a guy who censures the news that goes out of Italyto the United States. Darrah and McCormick are anti-fascist journalists.

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Complete list of answers and comments

155 months ago

wrote:

a kind of miniature Napoleon

The asker rated this answer best

155 months ago

wrote:

should he...fail/refuse to follow orders, i.e. fail/refuse to do his duty?

My comment:

The sentence is shockingly long-winded! The main clause is "Doveva .... venir meno agli ordini ricevuti," etc.
venir meno a something = to fail to do something.
The second part of your question "una specia di Napoleone..." is a description of Robert McCormick, (he was a kind of Pocket sized Napoleon) and has nothing to do with the "Doveva..." clause. (It's not clear from the context who the subject of "doveva" is, by the way, but it's none of the characters mentioned.)

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