History Polyamory / Literature

* ''Literature/AnitaBlake'': Anita Blake eventually takes this option with her entire UnwantedHarem.

* In Jennifer Crusie's ''Crazy For You'', the female protagonist's mother is involved with a best friend as well as a husband.

%%* It tends to happen in ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern''.

* In ''Literature/{{Existence}}'' it's briefly mentioned that Hacker has two girlfriends and Gerald is in a group marriage.
* In ''Literature/TheExpanse'' polygamous marriages aren't the norm but also aren't considered especially odd. Main character James Holden is the child of just such a marriage, being created from the genetic material of all eight of his parents.

* Some of Creator/OctaviaButler's novels involve people ending up in this sort of situation, usually because of Bizarre Alien Biology--which the humans may struggle against before finally giving in.
** In the series ''Literature/LilithsBrood'' a family may involve a human male, a human female, an Oankali male, an Oankali female, and an ooloi.
** In ''Literature/{{Fledgling}}'', each vampire keeps a small collection of humans as a family (and a food source).

* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's works feature this heavily, especially as he got farther into his career, which gives it strong overtones of AuthorAppeal. Most of the works in question advance the concept that a truly [[BlitheSpirit free individual]] should not be restricted by cultural taboos in choosing whom or how many to love.
** ''Literature/TheMoonIsAHarshMistress'' features prototypal matriarchal group marriages -- that is, the woman is the dominant partner and has full discretion as to whom or how many men she marries.
** ''Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand'' has Mike, a human with [[BlueAndOrangeMorality Martian values]], form an entire quasi-cult around the notion of Free Love. Said novel was widely influential in the counterculture of the American 1960s and arguably predicted it.
** ''Literature/{{Friday}}'' starts with the titular protagonist in a group marriage in New Zealand, although they divorce her after she exposes their racist hypocrisy. She later joins a much healthier group marriage.
** ''Literature/TimeEnoughForLove'' and all subsequent novels in his "Future History" series feature Lazarus Long's increasingly extended family, designed as a group marriage in which individuals are free to come and go as they please but are all mutually responsible for the maintenance of the household and care of the children. The only restriction on who sleeps with whom is genetic compatibility, and not even then if there is no risk of pregnancy. Outside of marriage, anyone can shack up as long as they follow the same rules, including blood-relatives; Long's own marriage includes his mother and grandfather.
** The protagonists of ''Literature/TheNumberOfTheBeast'' and ''Literature/TheCatWhoWalksThroughWalls'' all eventually fall into Lazarus' polyamory through various circumstances, including TimeTravel and dimension hopping.

* Literature/TheSupervillainySaga: VillainProtagonist Gary is monogamous with his wife, Mandy, during the start of the series [[spoiler: but becomes involved with sidekick Cindy when his wife is a soulless vampire. Then Mandy gets her soul back and it becomes complicated. Also, Supergirl {{Expy}} Gabrielle and Gary have an on again, off again relationship dating back to college. Later, Gary admits that he tries to maintain all of his relationships because he's afraid of losing any of them from his life.]]

* Vonda [=McIntyre=] [[AuthorAppeal seems to like this]]:
** In the ''Starfarers'' series, there's at least one married triad (who were previously a ''tetrad'', [[spoiler:and almost became one again,]] but [[spoiler:in both cases]] someone died).
** ''Literature/{{Dreamsnake}}'', it's monogamous characters like Arevin who stand out.

* ''Literature/WickedLovely'':
** Leslie, Niall and Irial are all totally cool with their threeway--but not three''some''--relationship.
** To a lesser extent, Ani and Rae seem fine with sharing Devlin as well.

-->“[[BabiesMakeEverythignBetter Kids are great. Why? Because they turn people into family.]] Put a chain between you that can’t be severed easily. The word ''friend'' is pretty and all, but it’s fragile in a way I just can’t trust. If it’s in the cards, I’d like to be more than that with ''all'' of you.”

* Fairly early on in ''TheHaremProtagonistWasTurnedIntoAGirlAndDoesntWantToChangeBack'' Svetlana's first girlfriend Vivian floats the idea of polyamory to Svetlana who agrees to try it out. The other members of Svetlana's [[HaremGenre anime-style harem]] take varying amounts of time coming around to the idea [[spoiler:they all eventually do, and another alien princess joins at the end of the story ending an intergalactic war]].

** The Aiel people, one of whom is a love interest of Rand's, formalize polygamous marriages as "sister-wives". As women in Aiel society are the ones to propose marriage, they generally decide on this arrangement in advance and are considered to be married to each other as much as to the husband. Although an Aiel marriage could involve multiple husbands, it's not mentioned as something that happens.
** Some Aes Sedai from the Green Ajah have a polyamorous relationship with their warders although this is rare and not officially sanctioned.

** ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' has Frex/Melena/Turtle Heart. It started with Melena cheating on her husband Frex with Turtle Heart. And then Turtle Heart and Frex fell in love too. Eventually, Melena had their daughter Nessarose, and in not knowing if she was really his or Turtle Heart's, Frex decided on some sub-rational level that she was all of theirs, which is why she always meant more to him than Elphaba.

*** Aegon the Conqueror started the tradition when he decided to married both Visenya and Rhaenys. He was supposed to marry Visenya but loved Rhaenys, and it was a MarryThemAll solution. Each of them rode one of the three famous Targaryen dragons. Aegon's case is kind of an ExaggeratedTrope version of the idea "behind every great man is a great woman." It's clear that having ''two'' great women behind him is much of the reason he was so successful. Aegon was as least as much of a conqueror as Alexander the Great was in our world, but instead of dying young, he went on to rule his kingdom--and was by all accounts the greatest king Westeros has ever known.
*** Other Targaryens (descendants of the conquering triad) also went the poly route… if in very destructive ways that neither Aegon, Visenya nor Rhaenys would have have condoned, thanks to the StupidEvil ways they went about it. Two consenting wives at once? No problem. But Maegor "the Cruel" had three at once, including ''kidnapped'' wives he [[UriahGambit gambitted]] into it after killing a couple of others. Um… recipe for disaster, mate.
*** And then Aegon "the Unworthy" was--at least--"just" a FatBastard who ReallyGetsAround and believed in open relationships on his end (just don't dare cheating on ''him''). Just as catastrophic as Maegor, though.