When the first marriage between an up-timer (people from the year 2000) and a down-timer (people from the year 1632) is proposed, some people bluntly tell the up-timer this trope is in full effect. Although the down-timer does not understand love, she is willing to work very hard to make the marriage successful. In later novels, we find they are very Happily Married.
Played with later on, when a young wealthy up-timer is part of the Quartermaster Corp of the United States of Europe's Army. He is really good at his job, and through his purchasing power and investment capabilities, he accidentally transforms a down-time town with an economic boom, just so he can supply his troops with what they need. When the local towns people realize his wealth and influence, (as the book puts it) "the campaign to introduce him to every unmarried daughter, niece, cousin and sister in the area kicked into high gear". It is pretty clear that the driving force for this were the adults doing the introducing, while the motivations of the girls being introduced was left unstated.
Alex Verus: According to the "Ask Luna" FAQ, many enchantment mages (even the Light ones) make a living this way.
The Maddox sisters are always in hope to land a rich bachelor.
Barney's Version: The Second Mrs. Panofsky's father thinks that Barney wants to get his hands on his daughter's money, seemingly not realising how much Barney earns through his TV production business. Ironically, Barney ends up financially supporting The Second Mrs. Panofsky via a very generous divorce settlement.
Bimbos of the Death Sun: 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 her out of sight of the costumers.
Walther Gassner married Anna Roffe, a woman considerably older than him and with no attractives other than being the heiress of the German branch of the family of the founder of a big pharmaceutical company. Anna's father tried to bribe him out and he used the money to buy her a wedding ring.
Before settling for her husband, Helene Roffe, heiress of the French branch, married other rich people to become even wealthier.
Books of the Raksura: Discussed when Moon is brought to Indigo Cloud Court as a prospective royal Consort: the reigning queen Pearl accuses him of being a dishonest solitary who's just trying to enrich himself. The daughter-queen Jade counters that he didn't even know he was a Consort and hasn't accepted any of the courting gifts she's left him.
Bridge of Birds: 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 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 they subconsciously remind her of her real name, Jade Pearl, that she had been mind-wiped into forgetting by her current husband.
Brig Scarlet Flamingo: Apart from his good looks, Eustace’s wealth also attracts many of his numerous paramours. It helps that he is very generous and happy to give out money to any woman who asks. However, his son Simon isn't happy about it all and is ready to kill or blackmail his half-siblings to get the money back.
Brother Cadfael: 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 he got killed.
A Brother's Price: The arranged marriages can be arranged for the purpose of gold-digging by the relatives, and very often are.
Keifer Porter is a rare example of a man who was fully onboard with his sisters' decision to marry him to the Princesses - they got the money, and became sisters-in-law with the royals, he got fancy clothes and jewellery, a luxurious life, and was planning on having the husband's quarters redecorated with gilding and all sorts of expensive extras.
The Whistlers, being a poor family, are suspected of being gold-diggers, but they aren't; they want Jerin to be happy, and never even dreamt of being able to marry him to a noble family before the opportunity presented itself.
Buddenbrooks: Bendix Grünlich marries Tony (Antonie) Buddenbrook exclusively for the dowry. As expected, this doesn't end well.
Celeste: It's clear early on that Ami is only with Wade because she likes the money that the Emerson family has far more than she does the family. And it's why she came up with the idea for Celeste the younger to be impregnated and give birth to an Emerson baby so that she can stay in the lap of luxury.
Classic Singapore Horror Stories has 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.
Rachel gets accused of this by Nick's Secretly Wealthy family, especially by Nick's ex-girlfriend and her friends, but it's averted. Rachel genuinely had no clue that Nick's family was wealthy when they started dating.
Kitty Pong plays this straight. She breaks up with Alistair after Oliver convinces her that he is too "poor" for her and lures her into marrying billionaire Bernard.
At Araminta's bachelorette party, one of Araminta's friends faces the terrible dilemma that her boyfriend, while rich, is not rich enough to provide for her lifestyle. Another friend says that this is reason enough for her to dump him and find a richer boyfriend.
Dollanganger Series by V. C. Andrews: 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.
Dragonvarld: The moment Evelina learns that Marcus is in fact a prince (even if not the heir) she sets herself to seduce him, hoping she'll become his mistress and the mother of his child.
Dubliners: Ignatius Gallaher in "A Little Cloud" means to "marry money" with some rich German or Jews.
The Elenium: One relationship could be interpreted as greed-driven. 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.
Emma: Mr. Elton 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.
Escape from Hell (2009): Allen and Rosemary meet a woman in the Third Circle who was a Playboy playmate that married a billionaire — with the catch that he was eighty-nine and she was twenty-six. She claims that it was a perfectly fair deal, since he knew he wasn't long for the world and she was faithful for the few years they were together — so what if she inherited all his money afterwards and was a serial widow anyway? Rosemary, who knew her in life, is not impressed. After her husband died, she blew his money away on alcohol, drugs, and men, which got her sentenced among the Wasters after death.
Forbidden Sea: Sadelyn from Shadow in the Sea was the target of romantic overtures by the villainous Captain Westwood, who wasn't interested in her at all and only wanted her guardian's money. Thinking the match was secure, Westwood committed an Inheritance Murder of Sadelyn's guardian. When Sadelyn realized immediately that Westwood was the killer, he instead pinned the crime on her to protect himself.
The Goblin Emperor: 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.
The Golden Demon: Deconstructed. The main moral is chasing after money will ruin your life utterly. Miya marries rich banker Tomiyama over longtime boyfriend Kan'ichi and ends up miserable because the former is a crappy husband, while Mitsue who was forcibly married to a rich Loan Shark ends up falling in love with his money and becoming a renowned loan shark herself.
Gone with the Wind: Scarlett, 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.
The Help: Subverted with Celia Foote, a girl from the Wrong Side of the Tracks who married one of the most eligible — and wealthy — young men in the Jackson area. The 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.
Prince Thanel. Once he finally gets it through his head that under Valdemaran law, marrying the Queen does not automatically make him King, he seeks to murder his wife so that he becomes de facto king as regent to their infant daughter.
Baron Melles is despised by most of the Imperial court. But within minutes of being named the Emperor's heir, he is swamped by members of the court cheerfully gold digging on behalf of themselves or their daughters/sisters/nieces/cousins. Since Melles knows exactly what the rest of the court thinks of him, he recognizes this for what it is immediately.
Master Bard Tobias Marchand. He married his wife (Lena's mother) for the regular income, and committed borderline-treason to get more money.
I Capture the Castle: Cassandra Mortmain 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 Rose breaks it off with Simon and gives in to the Belligerent Sexual Tension she has with his brother Neil.
Inkmistress: Ina coldly reveals to Asra she never really loved her, nor Garen. She'd just seen them both as people she could use through their relationships to climb the social ladder.
Betsy moved to the affluent neighbourhood of Salem Ridge specifically to pursue a rich man. She ended up marrying the incredibly wealthy Robert Powell and certainly enjoyed the lavish lifestyle he provided for her. It's implied she may also have started an affair with George Curtis for this reason; while Rob was rich, his fortune paled in comparison to George's, as the billionaire owner of a fast food franchise. Betsy began demanding that George divorce his wife, presumably so they could be together, though she may also have just been messing with him.
Muriel Craig's acting career never quite took off the way she wanted, so she hoped to marry into money. She was dating Robert Powell and they had talked about getting engaged, until Rob met Betsy and married her instead. Muriel has always been bitter about this and in the present day she really lays on the charm in an attempt to win Rob back.
Alison Schaeffer is a more sympathetic example. She was dating her future husband Rod in college, who had been in love with her for years. Alison didn't feel as strongly, but after she lost out on a much-needed scholarship to go to medical school thanks to Betsy, Alison agreed to marry Rod when he promised to put her through medical school with his earnings from the New York Giants. Unfortunately, less than a month later Rod was involved in an accident that ended his career in football and Alison dropped out of medical school to care for him. It's indicated that helping to rehabilitate and support Rod caused Alison to fall in love with him.
Spiro Papadalos from Death by Pantyhose is married to the daughter of a billionaire made rich from pita. Risk of a divorce from finding out about his sleeping with a prostitute that Vic was blackmailing him with gives him a good motive to kill the guy. However, he didn't, and just paid Vic off. He does, however, get found out and gets the boot from his wife, who then gets his club in the divorce.
As it turns out in Killing Bridezilla, Dickie was planning on marrying Patti Devane for her money, then getting a divorce settlement and living with the money and the woman he really loved, Veronica. It doesn't pay off, since Patti lost most of her money investing in really bad business ideas.
Graham Palmer III of Killer Cruise was clearly only marrying Emily Pritchard for her money. Wouldn't be the first time he dated her and got money out of it.
It's revealed in Death of a Bachelorette that Spencer was planning to marry Dallas for her father's money, then get a divorce and live out the rest of his days with Polly Reilly. Hope was a Spanner in the Works for that by blackmailing him, so she had to go.
Beautiful but bitchy Blanche Ingram is without a dowry and pursues very wealthy Mr Rochester. He uses her only for Operation: Jealousy and never intended to marry her.
Mr Rochester's father by proxy. Edward was his younger son and did not inherit anything — the house and money went to his eldest son. He pressured Edward to marry a rich heiress, who turns out to be Bertha Mason who'd become the Madwoman in the Attic.
Defied by Jane Eyre herself. She says she won't marry a rich man until she is independently wealthy, so she won't be reliant on him. Though with her character traits, she would be a very diligent wife and useful companion.
Joe Pickett: 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.
Judge Dee: This is the way most High Class Call Girls hope to end their careers (and many of them do), by marrying a rich old general or court official. Unlike most examples, this is in no way seen as scandalous, in part due to the fact that polygamy is the accepted norm.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: 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. The animated version of the book makes this all the more clear.
Little Women: Discussed. The Marches are Impoverished Patricians, and their eldest daughter Margaret/Meg is very beautiful as well as somewhat greedy. When she visits her Spoiled Sweet friend Annie Moffat and gets dolled up for a party, she's emotionally crushed when she hears some Gossipy Hens 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 Hot-Blooded Jo even saying she's willing to hit Annie in Meg's defense. The Film of the Book slightly changes this scene, but the feeling is the same. Meg's other sisters, Beth and Amy, are the ones who find out about the gossip as they sneak into a Christmas ball hosted by Mr. Lawrence; Beth has an Heroic BSoD and Amy breaks into tears, so Marmee has to reassure them about her not seeing the girls in that way.
The L-Shaped Room: 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.
Maiden Crown: 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.
The one in the first book is a man who is hoping to marry his sister's wealthy ward in order to pay off his debts. (Unfortunately, the siblings forgot to tell the girl about this plan, and she elopes with someone else.)
The one in the second book is a beautiful woman from an impoverished family hoping to get a wealthy husband so she can remain a figure in Society. Her primary target (the male lead) is engaged to someone else (the female lead) by the end of the story. No mention is made of whether or not she snared the other man she was aiming for.
The female lead of the duology, despite having started as a street urchin and ending about to be married to a gentleman of means, is not one (if she had been, she would have married the Marquis rather than the title-less gentleman).
Manon Lescaut: The eponymous heroine leaves her lover Des Grieux after sucking dry his wallet, then moves on to a rich old man. This eventually leads to her downfall and death. Her story is the subject of many operas and ballets.
Maria Bertram becomes engaged to the immensely wealthy and immensely dull Mr. Rushworth in order to become independent of her family. She falls in love with Henry Crawford while engaged, but marries Rushworth despite her father's doubts when Crawford disappoints her.
Mary Crawford, though an heiress herself, initially considers pursuing Sir Thomas's heir Tom, and is shocked to find herself falling in love with Edmund (the younger son), whom she knows will not inherit a fortune and is, therefore, simply out of the question as husband material. She can't reconcile her feelings for him with her determination to marry a man of fortune until his older brother falls ill, and she's thrilled because, if he dies, Edmund will inherit his title and estate... an attitude that does not make Edmund very happy when he hears about it.
Miss Marple: Gerald Wright in A Pocket Full of Rye. 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.
The Mister: Maxim's mother was this; she married his father for his wealth and title, then later divorced him, with Maxim stating she didn't reciprocate his genuine love for her. This has apparently given Maxim concerns about his own relationships with women.
Isabella Thorpe becomes engaged to James Morland because he is the eldest son of a slightly better-off family, but continues to pursue the far richer Frederick Tilney. The novels ends with her still being single.
John Thorpe, who is keen to marry Catherine Morland, boasts to old General Tilney that Catherine is an heiress (a lie), which inspires the General to throw his younger son Henry Tilney at Catherine, and then to throw Catherine out of their country house in the middle of the night after the thwarted Mr. Thorpe tells him she is a gold digger (also a lie).
The Other Side Of Midnight: Noelle Page 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.
Överenskommelser by Simona Ahrnstedt: Lily Tremaine 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.
Mrs. Bennet seems like a gold digger by proxy. She pressures Elizabeth and her sisters into chasing rich men. The eldest daughter, the perfect Jane, falls in love with a rich man genuinely; the middle sister Mary, who feels unworthy because she can't do the only thing her mother would approve because she isn't charming enough, shies away from the world and retreats into books; and the youngest two sisters are airheads who end up risking a lot while flirting. Socially and economically, her daughters don't have any other options: they are poor and have no dowry.
Elizabeth is not a typical gold digger, despite her snarky hints she first began to love Mr Darcy when she saw his beautiful estate in Derbyshire. At first, Elizabeth shies away from Darcy in part because of his wealth; indeed, she despises him at first because he appears to be a snob. She does become open to his friendship (and courtship) after visiting his vast estate, but that has more to do with seeing how much his servants admire him, how nice he is to his sister, and his politeness towards her aunt and uncle despite knowing that they're in trade.
Elizabeth's suitor Mr. Wickham is a typical Austen gold digger; it's eventually revealed that he tricked wealthy Georgiana Darcy into running away with him (but he's thwarted before he can get at her money). It's implied that he courts Elizabeth only until he realizes she isn't an heiress, and starts paying attention to Miss King immediately after she inherits some money.
Charlotte Lucas marries embarrassing Mr. Collins only because it means she will be provided for. She's 27 years old (meaning she is dangerously close to being called an Old Maid) and figures marrying a clergyman who will eventually inherit a small country estate is her best, not too shabby shot, even tough part of the deal is being stuck with a ridiculous, pompous, and stupid man for life.
The Angel-Seekers in the Samaria novels by Sharon Shinn are examples of this. Since Angels are forbidden from breeding with each other (unless given special dispensation from Jovah), they have to interbreed with humans. Any woman who bears an Angel child (or man who fathers an Angel child) is taken into the Angel parent's community and lives in luxury for the rest of their days. The result is a subcommunity of young men and women living near the Angels trying to snare an Angel lover. Since the child of a human and an Angel isn't always an Angel, there is also the secondary result of a large number of human children birthed by an Angel-Seeker and then discarded when their parent decides to make another try for an Angel child.
As a very young man, Edward Ferrars became secretly engaged to Lucy Steele, his tutor's niece, and can't honourably break off the engagement. She maintains the pretense of selfless devotion to him, even after he is disowned because of her, until she has secured a better prospect: his younger brother.
Mr. Willoughby leaves the penniless Marianne Dashwood, whom he loves, for the wealthy heiress Miss Grey. The devastated Marianne eventually concedes that he never would have been satisfied as a poorer man married to her even though they loved each other — material wealth simply mattered to him more than love.
Lord Robert St. Simon in the story The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor is only marrying American heiress Hatty Doran for her money, and she's only marrying him because her first husband was abducted by Indians years ago and is probably long dead. He isn't.
The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist centers around two men trying to court a young music teacher because they know that her uncle is rich and has no will - making his niece, as next of kin, the heir to his fortune by default.
In The Sign of the Four, Watson desperately hopes (and is ashamed of himself for hoping) that Mary's Unexpected Inheritance 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.
The Son Of The Ironworker: After the death of wealthy farmer Cándido Sánchez, his chief shepherd Cosme sets out to subtly woo Cándido's widow Laurea, marry her and become rich. Cosme's greed and ambition drive him to get rid of Martín, Cándido and Laurea's foster son, since he knows that Martín has inherited Cándido's best farmland, and Cosme is not willing to share Laurea's wealthy with anybody.
A Song of Ice and Fire: Ser Jorah Mormont's second wife. 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.
The Sorrows of Satan: Lady Sibyl's father, the Earl of Elton, is waiting for his wife to die so he can marry Diana Chesney, a 20-year-old American heiress. He has also made it clear to Sibyl that she must marry wealthy so he will have another source of income. Sibyl believes herself to be incapable of romantic love and openly admits that she only accepted Geoffrey's proposal for his riches, and she sees herself as having been sold on the market, little better than a slave girl. Geoffrey wants her so badly that he's willing to enter a loveless marriage.
Tender Is the Night: Subverted. Baby Warren thinks Dick Diver is a gold digger who married her wealthy sister for her money even though in reality, he married her out of love.
This Side of Paradise: Rosalind is a woman who has her eyes set on a man's wealth and status, which is what led her to break up with the middle-classed Amory and get hitched with his rival, the wealthy Old Money Dawson.
The male version is common in The Three Musketeers, 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. Porthos with his rich lawyer's wife is even worse - clearly he's not attracted to her in any way, and only uses her for her husband's money. He also likes to flirt with younger, richer-looking women in front of her (in church no less!) in order to make her jealous. Milady, meanwhile, may count as a female example. She's of much lower birth than her (first and second) husbands, and deliberately kept her shady past from them.
In Through Alien Eyes, First Contact initiator Juna Saari is told that she must be married within four months of giving birth so that her child will be raised with both human and alien caretakers. She's courted by the powerful Xavierra family, which owns much of the Moon. This is a two-way use of this trope, in a way; she's interested in the Xavierras because they're very wealthy, while they are interested in her connections to aliens and fame.
Glinda from Wicked married for the money. It doesn't help that she didn't love her husband and was in love with her female best friend.
Gender-inverted in The Will of the Empress. 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.
X-Wing Series: Leonia Tavira. She isn't above whoring herself out to get what she wants. She became the mistress of her planet's governor at the age of sixteen, and after his wife died under mysterious circumstances, she married him and took over as de facto ruler of the planet after he suffered a stroke, then supposedly shot himself after he had recovered enough to fire a blaster.
