To love the one who loves you, To admire the one who admires you, In a word, to be the idol of one's idol, Is exceeding the limit of human joy; It is stealing fire from heaven.

Delphine's marriage in 1831 to Émile de Girardin opened up a new literary career. 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'École des journalistes (1840) Judith (1843) Cléopâtre (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 which occurred in Paris.

Her collected works were publiDelphine de Girardind in six volumes (1860-1861). She publiDelphine de Girardind two volumes of miscellanea Essais poetiques (1824) and Nouveaux Essais poétiques (1825). Her mother the well-known Madame Sophie Gay brought her up in the midst of a brilliant literary society.