GIRARDIN

girardin, delphine de (1804-1855), french author, was born at aix-la-chapelle on the 26th of january 1804. her mother, the well-known madame sophie gay, brought her up in the midst of a brilliant literary society. she published two volumes of miscellaneous pieces, _essais poetiques_ (1824) and _nouveaux essais poetiques_ (1825). a visit to italy in 1827, during which she was enthusiastically welcomed by the literati of rome and even crowned in the capitol, was productive of various poems, of which the most ambitious was _napoline_ (1833). her marriage in 1831 to emile de girardin (see below) opened up a new literary career. the contemporary sketches which she contributed from 1836 to 1839 to the feuilleton of _la presse_, under the _nom de plume_ of charles de launay, were collected under the title of _lettres parisiennes_ (1843), and obtained a brilliant success. _contes d'une vieille fille a ses neveux_ (1832), _la canne de monsieur de balzac_ (1836) and _il ne faut pas jouer avec la douleur_ (1853) are among the best-known of her romances; and her dramatic pieces in prose and verse include _l'ecole des journalistes_ (1840), _judith_ (1843), _cleopatre_ (1847), _lady tartufe_ (1853), and the one-act comedies, _c'est la faute du mari_ (1851), _la joie fait peur_ (1854), _le chapeau d'un horloger_ (1854) and _une femme qui deteste son mari_, which did not appear till after the author's death. in the literary society of her time madame girardin exercised no small personal influence, and among the frequenters of her drawing-room were theophile gautier and balzac, alfred de musset and victor hugo. she died on the 29th of june 1855. her collected works were published in six volumes (1860-1861). see sainte-beuve, _causeries du lundi_, t. iii.; g. de molenes, "les femmes poetes," in _revue des deux mondes_ (july 1842); taxile delord, _les matinees litteraires_ (1860); _l'esprit de madame girardin, avec une preface par m. lamartine_ (1862); g. d'heilly, _madame de girardin, sa vie et ses oeuvres_ (1868); imbert de saint amand, _mme de girardin_ (1875).