Girardin, Emile de

Biography

Emile de Girardin was the illegitimate child of Alexandre, Comte de Girardin, lieutenant général under Louis XVIII and Charles X, and Mme Duprey, wife of a councellor at the royal court in Paris. He was born in Paris in 1806. Various myths about Emile's parentage included that he was the son of Mme Adélaïde, sister of Louis-Phillipe. In his youth Emile used his mother's maiden name, Fagnan, but at the age of 22 he acted against legal conventions and publically took the name de Girardin. In 1827 he wrote an autobiographical novel called Emile which recounted the struggles of the child of adultery against society, and took up the cause of abandoned children. His father, Alexandre, could not legally acknowledge him, but through Alexandre's connections Emile was given the post of Associate Inspector of Fine Arts in 1828. Shortly there after Emile established the literary journal Voleur, and later Mode, which together formed the early part of his publishing success. In 1836 Emile founded the political journal Presse, whose outspoken opinions led Emile into three duels, one imprisonment, and the suspension of publication. His career also included the purchase and revitalization of the journal Liberté, and the publication of numerous articles and collections of articles. Emile married in 1831 the poet Mlle Delphine Gray, who died in 1855. Emile de Girardin remarried eighteen months later to Mme Mina de Tieffenbach, with whom he had a child who tragically died in 1865. The de Girardins were legally separated in 1872. Emile died by 1883, when on 24 May his estate was sold in Paris.

Bibliography

1865

Larousse, Pierre, Grand dictionnarie universelle du XIXe siécle. 15 vol. Paris, 1867: 8: 1269-1271

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