Staël's Delphine (1803) was popular among British women, but her Corinne, ou l'Italie (1807) exerted a crucial influence on Romantic women's conceptions of the female artist. Her career as a critic, literary philosopher, and analyst of national character began with Lettres sur les ouvrages et le caractère de J.-J. Rousseau (1788), translated as Letters on the Works and Character of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1789). Some of the most important of her publications that followed include De l'influence des passions sur le bonheur des individus et des nations (1796), translated as A Treatise on the Influence of the Passions upon the Happiness of Individuals and of Nations (1798); De la littérature considérée dans ses rapports avec les institutions sociales (1800), translated as A Treatise on Ancient and Modern Literature (1803); and De l'Allemagne (1810-1813), translated as Germany (1813). Also a dramatist, Staël authored some fourteen plays, a number of which were performed in salons, but were little-known outside those settings. She was the daughter of Jacques Necker, Director General of Finance under Louis XVI.