History LoveAtFirstSight / Literature

* The ''Literature/VitaNuova'' begins with [[Creator/DanteAlighieri Dante]] seeing [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Beatrice]] for the first time and adoring her. Every part of his being cries in praise of her as Love claims dominion of his heart, never to let him go free for as long as Beatrice is on Earth.

** [[HeroesWantRedheads Ginny]] [[FirstGirlWins Weasley's]] reaction to Harry from the moment she meets him. [[spoiler: That one sticks.]]

* In ''Literature/DragonBones'', there's a rather realistic example with Ward, who, when he first meets Tisala, can't keep his eyes off her, even though he remarks that there are many other beautiful women at the table, and she isn't even conventionally beautiful at all. It is obvious to the reader that he's smitten with her, as she gets a very detailed description, and he notices that he's fascinated. Later on, when he rejects another woman, she suspects that he'd prefer Tisala. He doesn't ''call'' it love in his inner monologue, but [[spoiler: as they do end up together eventually, and he immediately remembers her fondly when he sees her again, and admits that he compared all other women to her]] it is pretty obviously this trope.
* In Creator/SandyMitchell's ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' novel ''For the Emperor'', Literature/CiaphasCain describes his first meeting with Amberley Vail. He declares he's never believed in LoveAtFirstSight, but he can still remember (decades later) every detail about her from that first meeting. Also counts as LoveAtFirstNote; Amberley was posing as a (very talented) cabaret singer at the time.

* The werewolves in the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series undergoes a process called imprinting, which alludes to animals' instinctive and overpowering attachment to their young. However the effect is complicated by the fact that the werewolf can imprint on any human (in one case, a baby), and it can also happen when he or she is already in love with someone else.

** ''Twilight'' in general takes this to...rather extreme measures at times. There's a trend in predestination amongst the couples. An example of this would be Alice, who fell in love with Jasper ''before'' first sight (she foresaw meeting him and thus went to where they'd meet).

* TheCasanova Pufftail from ''Literature/{{Stray}}'' becomes [[LadyKillerInLove smitten]] with Tammy after [[RescueRomance saving her]] from a King Charle's spaniel.

* In Creator/GKChesterton's ''Tales of the Long Bow'', Owen Hood habitually fishes a certain location in hopes of meeting again a woman he had met only once:

* Most of Creator/PGWodehouse's heroes do this, and spend the rest of the novel/story working through a tangle of zany schemes and mistaken identities to finally marry the girl. In "Bachelors Anonymous," Ivor Llewellyn has a bad habit of proposing to women during awkward silences, only to get divorced later.

* S.L. Viehl likes to play with this trope in various ways.

* Miguel de Unamuno's novella ''Mist'' (original title: ''Niebla'') has the main character, Augusto, fall in love with Eugenia as they pass by each other on the street. Everybody supports their relationship except for Eugenia, who is in a relationship with somebody else.
* In ''The Sword and the Circle'', Creator/RosemarySutcliff's retelling of the first part of the Arthurian legend, eighteen-year-old Arthur falls in love with Guinevere at first sight, though he doesn't realise it initially. Then Lancelot and Guinevere fall in love with each other the moment they accidentally touch hands and look up into each other's eyes.

* In Creator/GeneStrattonPorter's ''The Song of the Cardinal'', the cardinal had actually met the she-cardinal before, and kissed her, but the circumstances meant he had not noticed her much. But when she flies to his tree, he is struck down, his usual {{Pride}} humbled, and he sets out to woo her.

* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] in ''Golden'', a retelling of "{{Literature/Rapunzel}}": Rue is skeptical that the prince could truly love her right after seeing her for the first time, especially since he had been talking before to the ''real'' Rapunzel (who kept out of his sight because of her baldness), but Rapunzel tells her that while true love does take time to develop, there's always that one moment when the seed for it is planted, whether it's a glimpse of a beautiful woman in a tower or a prince ready to sweep you off your feet, and sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith to let it grow and blossom.
* Played painfully straight in ''Zel'', another retelling of Rapunzel, however: Prince Konrad's five-minute encounter with Zel apparently had such a powerful impact on him that he turns down multiple arranged marriages and goes on a ''two-year'' quest to find this peasant girl he once gave a goose egg to.

* In the ChivalricRomance ''Sir Degrevant'', while Degrevant is fighting an neighboring lord, he catches a glimpse of his daughter Melidor, and falls instantly in love.
* ''The Grass Is Singing'' by Doris Lessing has an example that is such a heavy deconstruction it might not even count as that any more so much as someone just being WrongGenreSavvy. Dick Turner sees a glimpse of a beautiful woman in a movie theatre. Though he's introduced to some rather unremarkable woman whom he gives a lift home from the theatre, all he can think about is this one he saw. Later, he returns to the town and asks to be introduced to her. It turns out it's the same woman he took home, Mary, who just doesn't look at all as interesting unless seen in and from just that light and angle. They marry soon anyway because both just feel they need to find someone. It doesn't work out well, not even before the part where one of them winds up dead and the other insane.

* Anna and Vronsky in ''Literature/AnnaKarenina'' are a deconstruction of the trope. It's LoveAtFirstSight, and Anna gives up her entire life just to be with him -- but then they have to deal with what happens when that initual fascination isn't enough to sustain a relationship.

* ''The Bronze Horseman'' by Paullina Simons. Tatiana (a seventeen year old girl who's never been in a relationship) and Alexander, a 23 year-old Soviet army officer, fall in love the moment they lay eyes on each other at a tram station. Alexander walks her home and finds to his horror that his current GirlOfTheWeek is Tatiana's sister. [[HonorBeforeReason And Tatiana refuses to let him break up with her sister because of this]].

* In Creator/KatherinePaterson's ''Of Nightingales Who Weep'', Takiko falls in love with Hideo when she first meets him at the temple, even though she realizes that he is an enemy spy; she struggles to do her duty when it endangers him. [[spoiler:It ends in OldFlameFizzle.]]

* Daren and [[spoiler:Selenay]] in Creator/MercedesLackey's ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' novels. Also Sherrill with Keren. Reportedly, this is pretty common with lifebonds.
** As a matter of fact, [[spoiler: Talia and Dirk did this too. Dirk was the first Herald that Talia saw!]]

* In ''LightNovel/TheUnexploredSummonBloodSign'', the White Queen instantly fell in love with Kyousuke when he first summoned her. The exact reasons for this aren't explained, but [[spoiler:Doctor S (Kyousuke's abusive father) claims to have somehow engineered this, so he could use Kyousuke to control the White Queen.]]

* Most of Creator/PGWodehouse's heroes do this, and spend the rest of the novel/story working through a tangle of [[ZanyScheme zany schemes]] and [[MistakenIdentity mistaken identities]] to finally marry the girl.
** In "Bachelors Anonymous," Ivor Llewellyn has a bad habit of proposing to women during awkward silences, only to get divorced later.

* Later on in Conan's life, in "Literature/TheHourOfTheDragon", Conan has already become a King but is defeated in battle, dethroned and held captive in a dungeon at hostile Nemedia. When suddenly the slave girl Zenobia appears at the door of Conan's cell and offers to free him, he is initially suspicious of her motives. She explains: "I have loved you, King Conan, ever since I saw you riding at the head of your knights when you visited King Nimed years ago. My heart tugged at its strings to leap from my bosom and fall in the dust of the street under your horse's hooves". She is the first of the very many women Conan had known who makes him think seriously of marriage.
* Creator/JRRTolkien liked this one, both Beren and Aragorn were devastated by their first look at Lúthien and Arwen on ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', respectively. And of course we can't forget Luthien's parents, whose first meeting literaly consisted of centuries spent gazing into each other's eyes. Tolkien himself fell for his wife Edith when he was only sixteen, proposing marriage and being accepted the day after he turned twenty one.

* ''Literature/TheSagaOfErikTheRed''(subverted): While Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir is with her foster-parents Orm and Halldis, Orm and Halldis take in Einar, a young but successful seafaring merchant, who is "handsome and capable", and whose father Thorgeir is wealthy even though he is a freedman (former slave). Talking to Orm in a shed, Einar sees Gudrid passing by the door, and immediately asks Orm "who this beautiful women was" whom he has never seen before. When Orm tells him, Einar immediately declares his wish to marry Gudrid, and urges Orm to support his suit. Orm brings Einar's proposal to Thorbjorn, but Thorbjorn is irritated that Orm can even think that the son of a freedman could ever be good enough for his daughter. He does not let Gudrid go back to Orm and Halldis, and instead decides on emigrating to UsefulNotes/{{Greenland}} with all his family, and Einar never sees Gudrid again.

* In Creator/SandyMitchell's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} novel ''For the Emperor'', Literature/CiaphasCain describes his first meeting with Amberley Vail. He declares he's never believed in LoveAtFirstSight, but he can still remember (decades later) every detail about her from that first meeting.
** Also counts as LoveAtFirstNote; Amberley was posing as a (very talented) cabaret singer at the time.
* A humorous version in the latest book of the [[Literature/TheWheelOfTime Wheel of Time]], in which Berelain (TheVamp, who seduces people for political advantage) and Galad (an exaggeration of the KnightInShiningArmor) both fall head-over-heels on their first meeting. This leads to many entertaining scenes, especially as both of them are presented earlier as cool-headed and in control.

->"It was... something at first sight."

* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Evander falls in love with Serena the moment he sees her.

* Zoe admits in the ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' novel ''The Magnificent Nine'' that she knew Wash was the guy for her when she first saw him. Er, well, second sight…just ad soon as he got rid of the ugly PornStache. That’s what she didn’t like in her onscreen dialogue.

* Zoe admits in the ''{{Series/Firefly}}'' novel ''The Magnificent Nine}}'' that she knew Wash was the guy for her when she first saw him. Er, well, second sight…just ad soon as he got rid of the ugly PornStache. That’s what she didn’t like in her onscreen dialogue.

* Played straight and deconstructed in Creator/LMMontgomery's ''Literature/ATangledWeb'' Jocelyn left her husband on her wedding night because she had fallen in Love at First Sight with the best man, who left, unaware of her affection. [[spoiler:When they met again several years after [[OldFlameFizzle he is middle-aged, overweight man about to marry a rich widow]]. Jocelyn's love immediately fades away. Lucky for her that her husband didn't hold a grudge against her ]]