Around 1800, the word “ influence” suddenly became very much in vogue among writers. In a few years, the word passed from astrological discourse to historical and moral discourse in order to express the power of a man or a book to shape public opinion. It was soon to become the master word of literary history. This paper focuses on the history of this transition and on its consequences on the conceptualisation of “ influence”, taking a particularly long look at the debate between Bonald, Barante and Mme de Staël regarding the relationships between literature and society.