GIRARDIN, DELPHINE DE French au thor, was born at Aix-la-Chapelle, the daughter of Sophie Gay. 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 feuil leton 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 (183 6) and 11 ne f aut pas jouer avec la douleur (1853) are among the best-known of her romances; and her dramatic pieces in prose and verse include one-act comedies, C'est la faute du mari (1851), La Joie fait peur , Le Chapeau d'un horloger (1854) and Une Femme qui deteste son mari, which did not appear till after the author's death. Among the frequenters of her salon were Theophile Gautier and Balzac, Alfred de Musset and Victor Hugo. She died on June 29, 1855. Her collected works were published in six volumes (186o-61) .
See Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, t. iii. ; G. de Molenes, "Les Femmes pokes," in Revue des deux mondes (July 1842) ; Taxile Delord, Les Matinees litteraires (186o) ; 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) ; H. Malo, Une Muse et sa mere, Delphine Gay