Coppélia is a ballet by Leo Delibes based upon a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann entitled "The Sandman". It concerns an inventor who makes a life-size dancing doll. It is so life-like that a young man falls in love with it. If Mary Shelley's Frankenstein represents the dark side of the theme of scientist as creator of life, then Coppelia is the light side.
Some influence on this story comes from travelling shows of the late 18th and early 19th centuries starring mechanical automations. This field of entertainment has been under-documented, but a recent survey of the field is contained in The Mechanical Turk by Tom Standage (2002). These shows were later to also influence Charles Babbage in his invention of the difference engine.
