Émile de Girardin (1806–81) was a famous French journalist and publisher. Called the “Napoleon of the Press,” he successfully published many low-priced and popular newspapers. He was deeply involved in politics and served in parliament.
Born in Paris, Girardin was the illegitimate son of General Alexandre de Girardin by the wife of a Parisian lawyer. In 1827, Girardin published an autobiographical novel, Émile, and the following year he founded the periodical Le Voleur. After the July Revolution in 1830, he started the Journal des connaissances utiles, and in 1831 married the novelist Delphine de Girardin.
In 1836, a charge that Girardin’s halfpenny Orleanist La Presse was subsidized by the government led to a fatal duel with Armand Carrel, the editor of the Nationale (1800–36.) From then, Girardin gradually became a republican. He promoted Prince Louis Napoleon’s election to the presidency but was exiled for disapproving of the coup d’état and became a socialist, proposing the splitting of France into 15 federal states.
In 1874, Girardin founded La France and Le Petit Journal, in which he again supported the republic. The journals played a significant part in the Republican triumph in the 1877 elections.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Emile de Girardin
A woman whom we truly love is a religion.
—Emile de Girardin
Topics: Love
Good taste is the modesty of the mind; that is why it cannot be either imitated or acquired.
—Emile de Girardin
Topics: Character
Modesty is the chastity of merit, the virginity of noble souls.
—Emile de Girardin
Topics: Humility, Modesty
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