History GoldDigger / Literature

* ''Literature/{{Bloodline}}'', by Creator/SidneySheldon, has some cases:

** Before settling for her HenpeckedHusband, Helene Roffe, heiress of the French branch, married other rich people to become even wealthier.

* ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' series: An interestingly positive example: Avice of Thornbury is completely honest about becoming a rich nobleman's mistress for status and riches. However, in the end their relationship remained that of a married couple. Also, she turned to be the ''only'' person to have any affection for him, and was genuinely sad when [[spoiler: he got killed]].

* ''Literature/ChristianNation'': The protagonist Greg's girlfriend Emilie will only marry him as long as he is a successful lawyer. As soon as he quits his job to join Sanjay's Theocracy Watch, however, Emilie dumps him.
* ''Literature/ClassicSingaporeHorrorStories'' has a few examples, including a fortune huntress who married an old Indian billionaire for his wealth and a gigolo who married an elderly widow to scam her of her farm, which he intends to sell and get rich.

* Several minor characters in ''Literature/TheElenium'' and ''Tamuli'' could be seen as this: One side of the marriage is a minor noble with a lot of money marrying for rank, the other side is a poor higher-ranked noble marrying for money. These marriages didn't work out very well.

* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' series:

* ''Literature/IveGotYouUnderMySkin'' has multiple examples:

* ''Literature/LittleWomen'': Discussed. The Marches are {{Impoverished Patrician}}s, and their eldest daughter Margaret/Meg is very beautiful as well as somewhat greedy. When she visits her SpoiledSweet friend Annie Moffat and [[SheCleansUpNicely gets dolled up for a party]], she's emotionally crushed when she hears some GossipyHens wonder out loud if her presence is a ploy by her parents to make her one of these, specially in regards to their ''very'' rich family friend Theodore "Laurie" Lawrence. Meg's mother Marmee and middle sister Josephine/Jo are ''very'' pissed off when Meg tells them, with the HotBlooded Jo even saying she's willing to hit Annie in Meg's defense.\\\
TheFilmOfTheBook slightly changes this scene, but the feeling is the same. Meg's ''other'' sisters, [[ShrinkingViolet Beth]] and [[SpoiledBrat Amy]], are the ones who find out about the gossip [[SnoopingLittleKid as they sneak into a Christmas ball]] hosted by Mr. Lawrence; Beth has an HeroicBSOD and Amy breaks into tears, so Marmee has to reassure them about her not seeing the girls in that way.

** In ''[[Literature/TheSignOfTheFour The Sign of the Four]]'', Watson desperately hopes (and is ashamed of himself for hoping) that Mary's UnexpectedInheritance remains lost, because he cannot abide her thinking him to be this if he woos her. When it is lost, he finally drops his self-flagellation and confesses to Mary that he is delighted. Mary is just as delighted, partly because she doesn't much care for wealth (and the wealth in question led to several deaths, including her own father's), partly because it has allowed Watson to stop mucking around trying to sacrifice his happiness for his honor.
* Ser Jorah Mormont's second wife in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. Which led to problems, since House Mormont is rather impoverished for a noble family. To satisfy his wife, Jorah had to sell some poachers into slavery even though slavery is illegal in Westeros. When the king found out, Jorah and his wife went into exile so he wouldn't be executed. She then dumped him for a much wealthier man.

* ''Literature/NorthangerAbbey'':

* ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun'': Brenda Lindenfeld, a minor character, is an overweight woman who doesn't want to enter the "real world" and hopes to use the promise of sex to land a successful husband so that she can continue her hobby instead of having to attempt to get a job. Unusually for the trope, she's neither a villain nor particularly unsympathetic -- as the book points out, she doesn't actually have that many other options in life, as her job prospects are essentially limited to minimum wage gigs that keep out of sight of the costumers.

* ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun'': Brenda Lindenfeld, a minor character, is an overweight woman who doesn't want to enter the "real world" and hopes to use the promise of sex to land a successful husband so that she can continue her hobby instead of having to attempt to get a job (for minimum wage, out of sight of the public). Unusually for the trope, she's neither a villain nor particularly unsympathetic -- as the book points out, she doesn't actually have that many other options in life.

* ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun': Brenda Lindenfeld, a minor character, is an overweight woman who doesn't want to enter the "real world" and hopes to use the promise of sex to land a successful husband so that she can continue her hobby instead of having to attempt to get a job (for minimum wage, out of sight of the public). Unusually for the trope, she's neither a villain nor particularly unsympathetic -- as the book points out, she doesn't actually have that many other options in life.

* ''Literature/TheLShapedRoom'': Subverted in the sequel, ''The Backwards Shadow''. Joanne was a failed actress in her late 30's. She married her husband for his money, promising to make him a good wife and give him a baby if she could. The marriage was very happy and she was genuinely upset at his death, while recognising that everyone thought this was what she had been waiting for.

* In the ''Literature/JoePickett'' novels, Joe's mother-in-law Missy is a gold digger working her way through a series of husbands. Each time she marries up, marrying someone who is richer than her previous husband, and always ensuring that she comes out on top in the divorce settlement.

* In ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow'', Ichabod Crane is a male example of one, who is more attracted by Katrina's father's wealth than to her, gloating over the rich fields and abundant crops that are the foundation of the father's wealth. [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad The animated version of the book]] makes this all the more clear.
* Discussed in ''Literature/LittleWomen''. The Marches are {{Impoverished Patrician}}s, and their eldest daughter Margaret/Meg is very beautiful as well as somewhat greedy. When she visits her SpoiledSweet friend Annie Moffat and [[SheCleansUpNicely gets dolled up for a party]], she's emotionally crushed when she hears some GossipyHens wonder out loud if her presence is a ploy by her parents to make her one of these, specially in regards to their ''very'' rich family friend Theodore "Laurie" Lawrence. Meg's mother Marmee and middle sister Josephine/Jo are ''very'' pissed off when Meg tells them, with the HotBlooded Jo even saying she's willing to hit Annie in Meg's defense.\\\

* In ''Literature/MaidenCrown'', Tove is a sympathetic version: her obsession with status is because she was born to an abusive mother in an impoverished household, and the only way she could escape her lowly station and find security was by seducing a rich and powerful man, namely King Valdemar. When Valdemar marries Princess Sophie and begins spending all of his attention on her, Tove worries about being abandoned and considers going to different noblemen in court if he leaves her.
* Two show up in the ''Literature/MairelonTheMagician'' duology by Creator/PatriciaCWrede.

* The eponymous heroine in Abbé Prévost's novel ''Literature/ManonLescaut''. She leaves her lover Des Grieux after sucking dry his wallet, then moves on to a rich old man. This eventually leads to her [[DeathByMaterialism downfall and death]]. Her story is the subject of many operas and ballets.

* Noelle Page in ''Literature/TheOtherSideOfMidnight'' is a poor French girl who is (in essence) sold to a disgusting-but-rich shopkeeper as a mistress by her father. She flees after bilking the shopkeeper out of some money, but then falls in love with and is abandoned by an American pilot. In order to destroy him, and having learned her lesson from the prior experience, she proceeds to woo increasingly powerful men, culminating in becoming a Greek tycoon's mistress. Wooing the right men also helps her become an internationally beloved actress, which is all part of the plan.
* Lily Tremaine in ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}'' by Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt is a {{Reconstruction}}. She got married to an old British lord, who would turn out to be an abusive alcoholic, rather than accepting the proposal from Seth, the story's male protagonist, who wasn't rich yet at the time. And even as she later ''does'' get engaged to Seth, she does it only because she needs someone to help her with financial issues. But then, she finds true love at the exact same time as Seth gets reunited with Beatrice, the story's female protagonist, and they amicably agree to not get married after all.
* Gerald Wright in the Literature/MissMarple novel ''Literature/APocketFullOfRye''. He gets engaged to Elaine, the daughter of the wealthy Rex Fortescue, then dumps her when her father threatens to cut her off if she marries Wright. When Rex Fortescue is murdered and Elaine inherits a large sum of money, Wright immediately shows up again and resumes their engagement.
* In ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'':

* Subverted in the sequel to ''Literature/TheLShapedRoom'', ''The Backwards Shadow''. Joanne was a failed actress in her late 30's. She married her husband for his money, promising to make him a good wife and give him a baby if she could. The marriage was very happy and she was genuinely upset at his death, while recognising that everyone thought this was what she had been waiting for.
* Creator/SidneySheldon's book ''Literature/{{Bloodline}}'' has some cases:

* In ''Literature/BridgeOfBirds'', Lotus Cloud is known as "the most expensive woman in China" because she causes all of her suitors to go bankrupt in less than a week trying to please her with constant gifts of pearls and jade. Subverted, however, in that she isn't actually forcing or asking her suitors to give her all these riches; they just can't resist seeing her [[WhenSheSmiles smile]] every time she receives pearls or jade. Subverted even further in that she actually doesn't want pearls and jade because she's greedy but because [[spoiler:they subconsciously remind her of her real name, Jade Pearl, that she had been mind-wiped into forgetting by her current husband]].

* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', the arranged marriages can be arranged for the purpose of gold-digging by the relatives, and very often are.

* In ''Literature/{{Buddenbrooks}}'', Bendix Grünlich marries Tony (Antonie) Buddenbrook exclusively for the dowry. As expected, this doesn't end well.
* In ''Literature/ChristianNation'', the protagonist Greg's girlfriend Emilie will only marry him as long as he is a successful lawyer. As soon as he quits his job to join Sanjay's Theocracy Watch, however, Emilie dumps him.

* In ''Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy'', Lando wants to marry into money and recruits Luke to help. Luke shows his usually understated DeadpanSnarker side.

* In ''Literature/CrazyRichAsians'':

* In the ''Literature/DollangangerSeries'' by Creator/VCAndrews, Malcolm Foxworth is already wealthy, but part of his motivation for marrying Olivia (whom he neither loves nor is attracted to) is the money she is set to inherit. He pays lip service when her father warns that he's made legal provision to make sure Olivia's husband can never touch her money, and Malcolm evidently thinks that he'll be able to get around this - but he never does, and it becomes a source of increasing resentment toward her.

* Mr. Elton in ''Literature/{{Emma}}'' first chases Emma Woodhouse, the title character, even though he's so far beneath her socially that she assumes he's actually interested in her friend Harriet. When Elton is rejected by Emma, he almost immediately marries a woman from Bath whose "charms" -- she's loud, braying, crass, and bad-mannered -- are such that it's obvious he only married her for her money.

* In ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'', all the noble houses want to marry into the emperor's family for the political influence. However, most are more subtle about it than Eshevis Tethimar, who is very determined to marry Maia's sister, the Archduchess Vedero Drazhin, who doesn't even want to get married to ''anyone''. In arranging a marriage for himself, Maia uses his hand in marriage as bribe to placate a noble house that his father had snubbed.
* Deconstructed in ''Literature/TheGoldenDemon'', whose main moral is [[AllThatGlitters chasing after money will ruin your life utterly]]. Miya who marries rich banker Tomiyama over longtime boyfriend Kan'ichi ends up miserable because the former is a crappy husband, while Mitsue who was forcibly married to a rich LoanShark ends up falling in love with his money and becoming a renowned loan shark herself.
* Scarlett in ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'', with husbands #2 and #3. Especially #2, Frank Kennedy, who's a generation senior to her and had been courting her younger sister for some years before Scarlett flat-out lied to him about Suellen's alleged involvement with someone else, so she could swoop in, get married to him, and get the money to pay taxes on Tara (stated to be her reason to find him of interest). #3, Rhett Butler, was also quite wealthy, but she did at least have some history with him (including more than a little flirting) before their marriage, so money wasn't her ''only'' motive in that case.
%%* Daisy from ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'', in addition to being feather-brained. (Administrivia/ZeroContextExample)
* Subverted in ''Literature/TheHelp'' with Celia Foote, a girl from the WrongSideOfTheTracks who married one of the most eligible -- and wealthy -- young men in the Jackson area. The [[GossipyHens local girls]] all assume she married him for his money, but it turns out that they have one of the most genuine and loving marriages of any couple in the story.

* Cassandra Mortmain in ''Literature/ICaptureTheCastle'' gradually comes to see her older sister Rose as one of these for getting engaged to wealthy American Simon Cotton when she doesn't love him (but Cassandra does). Eventually [[spoiler:Rose breaks it off with Simon and gives in to the BelligerentSexualTension she has with his brother Neil]].

* ''Literature/BooksOfTheRaksura'': {{Discussed|Trope}} when Moon is brought to Indigo Cloud Court as a prospective royal Consort, the reigning queen Pearl accuses him of being a [[LonersAreFreaks dishonest solitary]] who's just trying to enrich himself. The daughter-queen Jade counters that he [[IAmWho didn't even know he was a Consort]] and hasn't accepted any of the courting gifts she's left him.

* The male version is common in ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'', where down-at-the-heels noblemen are noted to seek not rich wives, but wealthy mistresses. This is not the only reason that D'Artagnan falls for his landlord's wife (Madame Bonacieux), but as he notes, it certainly doesn't hurt things.

* Creator/SidneySheldon's book ''Bloodline'' has some cases:

* Gender-inverted in ''Literature/TheWillOfTheEmpress''. Sandry is heiress to the Landreg lands, and Empress Berenene wants to ensure that all the wealth and income from the property will stay in Namorn, so she sets several pliable courtiers to wooing Sandry. There are also a few men who try to abduct her to get their hands on it.

* Noelle Page in ''The Other Side of Midnight'' is a poor French girl who is (in essence) sold to a disgusting-but-rich shopkeeper as a mistress by her father. She flees after bilking the shopkeeper out of some money, but then falls in love with and is abandoned by an American pilot. In order to destroy him, and having learned her lesson from the prior experience, she proceeds to woo increasingly powerful men, culminating in becoming a Greek tycoon's mistress. Wooing the right men also helps her become an internationally beloved actress, which is all part of the plan.

* The eponymous heroine in Abbé Prévost's novel ''Manon Lescaut''. She leaves her lover Des Grieux after sucking dry his wallet, then moves on to a rich old man. This eventually leads to her [[DeathByMaterialism downfall and death]]. Her story is the subject of many operas and ballets.

* In ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow'', Ichabod Crane is basically a male example of one, who is more attracted by Katrina's father's wealth than to her. [[WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad The animated version of the book]] makes this all the more clear.