“Papivore”, “Citizen Kane” or, to use the subtitle of Adeline Wrona’s excellent biography, “Napoleon of the press”: these adjectives fit like a glove to Émile de Girardin (1806-1881) whose curious destiny is to have been one of the most powerful and feared beings of the 19the century, making and unmaking governments, to have almost disappeared from the radar but to remain for all those interested in the history of the press, the brilliant inventor of the one we know.
Adeline Wrona, biographer of Émile de Girardin
Celsa
A character as flamboyant as he was discreet, Girardin became famous when he founded “La Presse” in 1836, according to the dual principle that a newspaper is sold twice – to its readers, and to its advertisers – and that the price of advertising is indexed. on the draw. A revolution which is transforming from top to bottom a booming media landscape that Girardin, a gifted entrepreneur and tenacious litigator, has the ambition to dominate by embracing the spirit of the times and founding newspapers in succession.
Balzac, ami et rival
Writing your biography is like adding a chapter to Balzac’s “La Comédie humaine”. Natural son of Count Alexandre de Girardin, who fought at Austerlitz and whom Napoleon promoted, Émile has an obsession: to have his lineage recognized, a difficult battle that he ends up winning without shedding his reputation as an upstart. No matter: this Rastignac is a workaholic, networker and businessman much more efficient than his friend and rival Honoré “de” Balzac in the very recent particle.
A stroke of genius from Girardin was to enlist in his journals the best writers of his time, Balzac but also Alexandre Dumas, Théophile Gautier, George Sand. And the list of his associates, at the crossroads of letters and politics, is a directory of society with Lamartine, Victor Hugo and Adolphe Thiers at the head of the gondola. Girardin quickly entered politics, being elected deputy for Creuse, a modest position but which placed the journalist in ambush for a ministerial destiny which would never come.
An opportunist
In his rise, his first wife Delphine Gay, who signed “Le Vicomte” in influential serials in the “Girardin system” press, played a key role. While her “Muse” shines in her living room, her husband directs, edits, takes participations without forgetting the women including Countess Marie d’Agoult, companion of Franz Liszt. In politics, this opportunist began as a monarchist and ended as a republican after supporting the revolutions of 1830 and 1848 and providing critical support to the Second Empire: business is business.
The biographer had access to the correspondence that Girardin left despite his desire to erase his traces. Enough to fuel a fascinating story that sheds light on politics as much as the economy, literature as well as music, social classes and of course the world of the press. Adeline Wrona does not fail to recall that Girardin disappeared in 1881, the year of the vote on the law on freedom of the press which he had partly drafted, a freedom which was his only milestone, and what a milestone!
“Emile de Girardin, the Napoleon of the press”, by Adeline Wrona, ed. Gallimard/biography, 256 p., €22.
