History BrotherSisterIncest / Literature

* ''Literature/TheSecretHistory'': Twins Camilla and Charles are [[UnusualEuphemism siblings with benefits.]]

* ''[[Literature/AdaOrArdor Ada, or Ardor: a Family Chronicle]]'' chronicles an incestuous family with a focus on a specific brother-sister pair, who end up semi-happily married by the end of the book.
** This is only scraping the surface of it. Van and Ada start off thinking they're cousins—and second cousins, as while their mothers are sisters, their fathers are cousins. They later find out that they're both the product of an affair between the man Van knew as his father and the woman Ada knew as her mother. The two parental pairs were also second cousins. Oh, right, and Ada's sister (or half-sister, as it ended up being) also had a thing for Van [[spoiler:and is DrivenToSuicide when it is unrequited]]. And Ada and said half-sister also had an incestuous lesbian relationship when they were younger.

* In ''Literature/MirrorMirror'', a retelling of Snow White, has Lucrezia Borgia not only sleep with her brother, but also her father, and the son she conceived with said brother.

* ''Literature/DollangangerSeries'' (better known by the title of the first book, ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic'') is about four siblings who are [[ItMakesSenseInContext locked in an attic by their grandmother]]. The elder two--Chris (14) and Cathy (12)--are put in the situation of [[PromotionToParent taking on the role of parents]] for their younger twin siblings (5). They're in the attic for ''years'', not escaping until they're 18 and 15. As Chris and Cathy go through puberty with [[SituationalSexuality no one else to direct their budding sexuality toward]], as well as playing the roles typically occupied by a married couple, {{UST}} develops between them. After escaping the attic they spend years wresting with their feelings for each other. Chris wants to be with Cathy, but Cathy is terrified about sin and deformed children, and she enters a series of ill-advised relationships with other men as she tries to flee from her feelings for Chris. She has two children with two different men. After the birth of her second son, doctors say it would be dangerous for her to carry another pregnancy and advise she be sterilized. Cathy reluctantly agrees--not for the doctors' reasons, but so that she can be with Chris without fear of inbred children. She and Chris are not together at this point, but she knows in her heart that they're endgame. A few years later, they do get together. They get married, which is to say they move across the country where no one knows them and present themselves to the world as a married couple. They co-parent her two boys from prior relationships, and adopt a third child together.

* The not very famous book ''Malika'' from French author Valérie Valère is all about the incestous love between a teenaged boy and his little sister Malika. The siblings live on their own in Paris, and have an AbsentFather. At one point they confess their feelings to each other and start a relationship. [[spoiler:(And have a sexual encounter, and a really, really tragic end.)]]

* ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'': Along with some other sexual taboos, sibling incest is much less stigmatized on the planet Gethen -- siblings are forbidden from becoming life partners, but can remain lovers until they have a single child together. Estraven's backstory fell foul of this restriction: his sibling committed suicide rather than be separated from him, leading to Estraven's exile.

* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''Literature/TheLeftHandOfDarkness'', BrotherSisterIncest -- though not present in the main narrative -- is an important part of Estraven's backstory and love life (which is... complicated.)''
* In ''Literature/ALegacyOfLight'', Pharaoh {{UsefulNotes/Tutankhamun}} and Queen Ankhesenamun have been married since childhood in BrotherSisterIncest intended to preserve the royal bloodline.

* Mignon of ''Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship'' is the product of BrotherSisterIncest. Her parents did not find out that they were siblings until after they had a daughter and the discovery lead to Mignon's mother's suicide and her father's madness.

* [[Creator/ClarkAshtonSmith Clark Ashton Smith's]] ''Vathek'' story ''The Story of the Princess Zulkais and the Prince Kalilah'', has the titular prince and princess. Born to an Emir of muslim Egypt whose latest wife dies in childbirth, these twin aristocrats had been treated with unholy sorcery at the Emir's request to give them great talent. Between these treatments, growing up isolated from their older half-sisters and being twins, the two develop a more than filial love for each other and [[DealWithTheDevil join with the djinn lord Eblis]] so that they can have their forbidden love.

* ''Literature/{{Quarters}}'': Vree is attracted to her Bannon, her brother. She's also disturbed by the fact, and tries to tell herself that isn't what her feelings are. Bannon later actually proposes she have sex with Gyhard [[GrandTheftMe in his body]] to get close [[HoneyTrap so they can kill him]], and Vree reluctantly agrees, rationalizing that it's not her brother in there now. After she realizes how much Bannon is into the idea of having sex with his body while [[SharingABody sharing hers]], she's disgusted and stops herself though.

* In Gladys Mitchell's ''The Saltmarsh Murders'' (1932) features a... tightly wound family. Van and Ada start off thinking they're cousins--and second cousins, as while their mothers are sisters, their fathers are cousins. They later find out that they're both the product of an affair between the man Van knew as his father and the woman Ada knew as her mother. The two parental pairs were also second cousins. Oh, right, and Ada's sister (or half-sister, as it ended up being) also had a thing for Van [[spoiler:and is DrivenToSuicide when it is unrequited.]] And Ada and her half-sister also had an incestuous lesbian relationship when they were younger.

* ''Literature/{{Quarters}]'': Vree is attracted to her Bannon, her brother. She's also disturbed by the fact, and tries to tell herself that isn't what her feelings are. Bannon later actually proposes she have sex with Gyhard [[GrandTheftMe in his body]] to get close [[HoneyTrap so they can kill him]], and Vree reluctantly agrees, rationalizing that it's not her brother in there now. After she realizes how much Bannon is into the idea of having sex with his body while [[SharingABody sharing hers]], she's disgusted and stops herself though.

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** In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''Aragorn and Arwen are adoptive siblings ''and first cousins'' (admittedly, many many times removed because of the ludicrous age difference). Arwen's first cousins one time removed died 5,000 years ago, several thousand years before her parents even met. No one bats an eye at this. But then again, the Peredhel (half-elven) family is just like that because of the Choice of Lúthien. Being part [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Maia]] might also have something to do with it.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's story of Túrin Turambar (told both in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/TheChildrenOfHurin'') has a doomed relationship between Túrin and his SeparatedAtBirth sister, Niënor, even impregnating her. But they ''[[SurpriseIncest didn't know]]'' they were siblings. [[DrivenToSuicide They don't take the revelation well.]] Túrin is based on the character of Kullervo from ''Literature/TheKalevala'', who has a similar unknowingly incestuous relationship with his sister.

* ''Literature/DollangangerSeries'' by Creator/VCAndrews: The first two books, famously starting with ''Literature/FlowersInTheAttic'', focus on two siblings Cathy and Chris who, along with their younger twin brother and sister, are [[ItMakesSenseInContext locked in an attic by their grandmother and escape after the male twin dies of poisoned donuts]]. Turns out the reason their Grandmother Olivia locked them up is because their Mother and Father (who died in a car accident making it necessary for them to move to their Grandparent's mansion) were [[spoiler:half-uncle and niece]] and were disowned because they were caught having sex and then ran away. The big issue is that Cathy and her brother Chris have an incestuous relationship as teenagers that Cathy tries to avoid but, among other things, apparently rape is love, and as of the ending of ''Literature/PetalsOnTheWind'' they end up [[spoiler:living as husband and wife]] in an open secret type of relationship. The big surprise comes in the fifth book and prequel when you find out [[spoiler:Cathy's parents were not half-uncle and niece...they were actually half-brother and sister AS WELL as half-uncle and niece due to Cathy's grandfather Malcolm raping his stepmother Alicia. They never knew as Alicia and her second husband died and Malcolm, Olivia, and Olivia's cousin John Amos NEVER told anyone. All of this leads to (Grandmother) Olivia becoming the cold cruel person she is in the later books in order to hide this from the world]] The TV movie of ''Literature/SeedsOfYesterday'' (the final book in the series), takes this into the next generation, with Cathy's son Bart and adopted sister Cindy getting married after spending the majority of the film at each other's throats.
** Many of the works subsequently published under the V.C. Andrews name are known for this trope, including Literature/TheCasteelSeries (Heaven and her uncle Troy, Heaven's daughter Annie and her ([[NotBloodSiblings apparent]]) half-brother Luke), the Literature/CutlerSeries ([[NotBloodSiblings Dawn and Jimmy]], Dawn's actual blood brother Philip who remains creepily obsessed with her even after he learns they're related and later goes after her daughter Christie), the Literature/LandrySeries (Ruby marries her secret half-brother Paul so he can pose as the father of her illegitimate child and later has a one-night stand with him) and ''Broken Flower''.

* ''Literature/TheMortalInstruments'': Clary and Jace fall for each other in the first book, only to discover that they're siblings. Throughout the next two books, Jace openly says that they can have a SecretRelationship anyway; Clary won't, but also [[GreenEyedMonster gets angry]] if Jace shows interest in other girls. Eventually they find out that they're ''not'' biologically related, but her ''actual'' blood brother [[VillainousIncest totally wants her]] anyway. Clary and Jace are still kind of NotBloodSiblings, though (he was raised by her birth father), which, combined with [[IncompatibleOrientation Alec's attraction to Jace]] and [[Literature/TheDarkArtifices Emma and Jules]] being foster-siblings, have left some wondering if this trope is AuthorAppeal.

* ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'' has Multiple examples

*** The Targaryens believed that keeping their bloodline pure did not just preserve their Valyrian look but also their control of dragons. They might have been inclined to do this following the Doom of Valyria, which left them as the sole dragonlord family in the world, and the family tree suggested that it dated back to as far back as a century before Aegon I's conquest (Daenys the Dreamer, who foresaw the destruction of Valyria and the flight of the Targaryens to Dragonstone, married her brother Gaemon, and their children Aegon and Elaena would marry each other in turn). Hence, after the dragons were driven extinct during the [[CivilWar Dance of the Dragons]], the incest tradition slowly faded away, as the family integrated with Westeros.

*** The Targaryens believed that keeping their bloodline pure did not just preserve their Valyrian look but also their control of dragons. Hence, after the dragons were driven extinct during the [[CivilWar Dance of the Dragons]], the incest tradition slowly faded away, as the family integrated with Westeros.

*** To be more precise: Aegon I [[MarryThemAll married both of his sisters]], Visenya and Rhaenys, to follow tradition and his heart (he only loved Rhaenys, but had to marry Visenya because she was the eldest). Aenys I, Aegon I's son with Rhaenys, had five children, two of whom (Aegon and Rhaena) married and had two children, while another two (Jaehaerys I and Alysanne) married and [[MassiveNumberedSiblings had thirteen children]]. Out of those thirteen were Baelon and Alyssa, who married and had two kids, one of whom, Viserys I, had two children (Aegon II and Helaena) who married each other. Viserys I's great-grandson Baelor I wedded his sister Daena but [[ChastityCouple out of piety never consummated the marriage]], while another great-grandson, Aegon IV, wedded his sister Naerys and had two children with her. The incest tradition would stop for a couple of generations, only to restart with Aegon IV's great-grandchildren and [[{{Twincest}} twins]] Aelor and Aelora, followed by great-great-grandchildren Jaehaerys II and Shaera, who broke off their respective engagements to marry each other without their father's permission. ''Their'' children, Aerys II and Rhaella, were in love with others, but were forced to marry because of a prophecy.

*** The Targaryens believed that keeping their bloodline pure did not just preserve their Valyrian look but also their control of dragons. Hence, after the dragons were driven extinct during the [[CivilWar Dance of the Dragons]], the incest tradition slowly faded away, as the family integrated with Westeros. Aegon V actually wanted to outlaw the practice completely, but two of his children decided to marry without his permission. ''Their'' children were in love with others, but were forced to marry because of a prophecy.

* In Creator/DeanKoontz' ''Literature/TheBadPlace''