Frankelin's Tale
Preserved but no longer current.
See DORIGEN. Frankenstein (frangken stln). The young student in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's ro- mance of that name (1818). He made a soulless monster out of corpses from churchyards and dissecting-rooms, and endued it with life by galvanism. The tale shows how the creature longed for sympathy, but was shunned by everyone and became the instrument of dread- ful retribution on the student who usurped the prerogative of the Creator.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Frankelin's Tale” mean?
See DORIGEN. Frankenstein (frangken stln). The young student in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's ro- mance of that name (1818). He made a soulless monster out of corpses from churchyards and dissecting-rooms, and endued it with life by galvanism. The tale shows how the creature longed for sympathy, but was shunned by everyone and became the instrument of dread- ful retribution on the student who usurped the prerogative of the Creator.
Is “Frankelin's Tale” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.