Stalkers With A Crush in Literature.
Examples
- Adrian Mole: Adrian is almost this to Pandora in the early books after they break up as teenagers (and Pandora eventually marries another man.) In The Cappuccino Years he acquires his own Stalker with a Crush, Eleanor Flood.
- Ai no Kusabi: Guy and Iason for Riki. They both stalk and kidnap Riki at different points in the story.
- The Bible: The Ur-Example is Prince Shechem in The Book of Genesis. He was crushing on Jacob's only daughter, Dinah, and got this crazy idea that raping her would be a good idea. He does wind up marrying her, but the marriage lasts all of three days before her brothers kill him, along with all the men in the town.
- In Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian story "Black Colossus", an Eldritch Abomination that Was Once a Man toward Princess Yasmela. He visits her in the night with promises to make her his queen."But thou shalt be my queen, oh princess! I will teach thee the ancient forgotten ways of pleasure. We—" Before the stream of cosmic obscenity which poured from the shadowy colossus, Yasmela cringed and writhed as if from a whip that flayed her dainty bare flesh.
- The Cat Who... Series: In book #14 (The Cat Who Wasn't There), Qwill's one-time love interest, Melinda Goodwinter, goes so far as to try to have his serious girlfriend murdered in an attempt to get him back.
- Sam Haine the pumpkinhead in City of Devils has a shaky understanding of "no," and has been known to react poorly to alternate suitors. He really thinks Nick Moss would make an excellent pumpkinhead.
- Its sequel has Mira Mirra the doppelganger take Sam's place. Her methods are a little more subtle but no more successful.
- Frederic/Ferdinand/Caliban from The Collector by John Fowles starts as one, but unlike many, goes past this phase, actually abducts his flame, and proceeds to...well, not exactly torture or rape, but rather "keep" her.
- Ricky Lozada from Sandra Brown's The Crush. In fact, the book's title is referring to Lozada's stalker crush on Rennie Newton. He constantly watches her, breaks into her house multiple times (leaving roses and later trying to "seduce" her), and has his geeky subordinate check up all the information he can on her.
- Geder Palliako in The Dagger and the Coin series orders the invasion of the country that Cithrin bel Sarcour was living in, with the army's orders being to take the city she was living in and bring her back to him. His fantasy was that, once she had been brought to him as a prisoner, he would explain everything to her and she would love him. What makes this even more horrifying is that many people quite naturally start to think that the easiest way to get the invading army to go away would be to turn Cithrin over to Geder. A stalker with no more resources than an ordinary person would be terrifying enough. Imagine a stalker who rules the most powerful country in the world and is willing to go to war to make you his.
- In Death on the Nile, Jackie obsessively follows her ex Simon around the world when he's on his honeymoon with another woman. Since the very concept of stalking is still in development at the time, Hercule Poirot admits the police are powerless to stop it if she doesn't use threatening language or attempt bodily harm. Then it's revealed to be a ruse – Jackie and Simon are lovers and set up the whole cover story in their plot to murder Simon's rich wife.
- In Eileen, the titular character spends much of her free time staking out the home of her coworker Randy, who she has a crush on, and watching him through the windows.
- In Vikram Seth's novel An Equal Music, the narrating Anti-Hero Michael gradually becomes this to Julia.
- Arguably, Goethe's poem "Der Erlkönig" (The Erlking/"elf-king"). The Erlking follows a father and young son traveling through the forest. Apparently invisible and inaudible to the father, he tempts the increasingly terrified child to come with him, offering him games and pretty clothes. When pretending to be nice doesn't work, the Erlking just uses force instead: "Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt/Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch ich Gewalt" ("I love you, my youngling; your form is so fine/And will you or no, I'll still take what is mine"). Right after this, the child screams that the Erlking has "hurt him," and he dies in the next stanza. It may not have been intentional, but to the modern reader, the poem radiates this trope.
- Dr. Ahriman of Dean Koontz's False Memory has a brief bit of this. He mind rapes most of his patients and uses them for all kinds of things, be it murder, revenge, or just... entertainment. He winds up (kind of) legitimately smitten with one, fortunately not realizing this until she and her husband have skipped town. By the time they get back, they've broken his mental hold and he winds up murdered by another patient.
- Fifty Shades of Grey: Christian Grey buys Anastasia's workplace in order to monitor her more closely, he follows her by tracing her cell phone, which is illegal on multiple levels, and even excessively texts/emails her every day. This type of behavior should terrify Anastasia, but she finds this to be flattering and romantic.
- The Forbidden Game: Julian acts this way towards Jenny.
- Girl with a Pearl Earring: Van Ruijven to Griet. This includes the movie adaption as well. In both works, he attempts to rape her, develops an obsession with her, and follows her around.
- The Grandmother: Piccolo, an Italian in the Princess' retinue, won't leave Kristla and other local girls alone. This earns him a physical attack from Míla and his friends. Lucka, the mayor's daughter, is in love with Míla, but he loves Kristla, and spiteful Lucka conspires with her father against Míla. His attack on Piccolo, combined with the Mayor's disfavor, results in Míla not getting a job as a hired hand and his becoming liable for military service.
- The Great Gatsby: Jay Gatsby is quite devoted to winning his love, Daisy Buchanan, over. He moved across the bay her house was located on, threw lavish parties at his mansion to draw her in and when she did came to one, he expected her to run away with him due to what she did to get close to her and was relenting even when it was made clear that Daisy didn't want him.
- Harry Potter has a few and none are played for much if any sympathy or laughs:
- In the sixth book, Harry got a stalker in Romilda Vane, who doubles as a Loony Fan. Romilda additionally showed some signs of being an Alpha Bitch.
- Again in the sixth book, Merope Gaunt harbored a burning obsession to Tom Riddle, Sr., who already had a girlfriend of his own. Later on, she tricked him into drinking a Love Potion long enough to marry him before raping him to the point of becoming pregnant with a child, who would grow up to rename himself "Lord Voldemort".
- In The Hating Game, Joshua is a mild example. Though he never violates her privacy, he does track what Lucy wears every day and he painted his bedroom to match the color of her eyes.
- In The Hellfire Club by Peter Straub, the villain Serial Killer Dick Dart acts like one towards Nora. He latches on to her due to a misunderstanding that she had kidnapped and tortured a woman, which caused him to believe that he finally found his worthy match and someone who was just like him. As a result, he kidnaps her and repeatedly rapes her, taking her along as he commits crimes all the while thinking of her as his accomplice. When she escapes from him, he stalks her and kidnaps her again, actually admiring her even more for managing to trick him.
- Austin from Hollow Places has shades of this. While it's not habitual, at one point he follows Isabella for miles throughout a city, deep into a cave, and enters the anomaly within said cave moments after she does. He does so under the pretense of making sure she's safe, but he probably wouldn't have bothered if he didn't have a thing for her.
- The House of Night:
- Heath, after Zoey drinks his blood and they imprint on one another. He texts her endlessly when she doesn't see him, hallucinates her, and seeks her out even under unsafe conditions.
- Kalona with regards to Zoey. He repeatedly shows up in her dreams, attempting to seduce her because she was his lover in her past life.
- How the Marquis Got His Coat Back: Vince the Mushroom man trades information to the Marquis for delivery of a letter to the girl he likes, a lady of the Raven's Court. The letter is filled with Mushroom spores to infect her so she won't even think of refusing.
- Frollo's behavior toward La Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame certainly qualifies.
- Eragon from Inheritance Cycle towards Arya.
- Legends & Lattes: Kellin insists that his former schoolmate Tandri is as attracted to him as he is to her. Tandri is quite emphatic this is not the case. Kellin, unfortunately, is now a member of the Thieves' Guild, preventing Viv from simply throwing him out on his ear. Viv makes him back off by threatening to tell his boss the Madrigal about him, as she doesn't like assholes.
- Gríma Wormtongue from The Lord of the Rings definitely qualifies as this in regards to Éowyn, albeit combined with Love Makes You Evil.
- Éomer says that he noticed and was tempted to kill him for it.Eomer: Too long have you watched my sister. Too long have you haunted her steps.
- Éomer says that he noticed and was tempted to kill him for it.
- This is the major theme of Love And Death Onlong Island, in which a British novelist falls for a male Teen Idol he sees in a movie. It's harmless enough at first, but he eventually flies to Long Island and tracks down his crush's house so he can break up his engagement.
- A more malicious Jane Austen example is Henry Crawford of Mansfield Park, who persists in tormenting the object of his desire (Fanny) no matter how much it distresses her.
- Older Than Radio: Eponine's stalking after Marius in Les Misérables. She finally confessed her feelings while dying after her Heroic Sacrifice.
- Marius also displays stalker-ish tendencies towards Cosette. He slept with what he thought was her handkerchief over his face (to make things more creepy, it turned out to be Jean Valjean's).
- Zane from Mistborn has an unhealthy fixation on the heroine, Vin, because she's the only person the voices in his head never told him to kill. Vin, for her part, treats Zane more as a Worthy Opponent, but isn't romantically interested in him at all, preferring his less badass but far more stable half-brother Elend. When she finally says "no" to him, Zane tries to kill her, being a psychopath and all. It doesn't work out so well for him...
- One of the creepier, yet mostly harmless instances of this trope is in Mr Blank. The clone family Brians has a thing for plus-sized model and agent of V.E.N.U.S. Mina Duplessis but that actually means they want to combine their genetic material into a new superbeing.
- In the Nero Wolfe story "Murder Is Corny", model Susan MacLeod asks her farmer father to hire a man she's casually dating. After she dumps him she finds out that he'd lied about needing a second job - he only wanted to force her to spend time with him. He eventually tells the other men she's dating that he's made her pregnant in an attempt to force her into marrying him to save her reputation. The story, which is false, seals his doom.
- Nightfall (Series): Sissi has become obsessed with Prince Vladimir from reading and hearing about him. She has undertaken a possibly deadly journey to meet him.
- A case of necessary stalking in The One Who Eats Monsters; Ryn spends every night camping on Naomi's roof, and sometimes keep track of her during the daytime hours as well. And, true, Naomi is her Love Interest. The thing is, Ryn is only doing it because she knows very well that Naomi is being stalked by another party, who are much less benign than Ryn. The one night that Ryn is distracted from her vigil, the other party takes note of Ryn's absence and sends in their pawn, which nearly results in Naomi's death. Although Naomi, not knowing any of this, is freaked out and betrayed when she finds out that Ryn has been keeping tabs on her this way.
- On the Street Where You Live: Eric Bailey is revealed to be Emily Graham's stalker (besides the serial killer also targeting her), motivated by obsessive infatuation and revenge. He feels slighted that Emily turned down his romantic advances and blames her for his company's impending bankruptcy (even though it's absolutely not her fault). He spent a year following her in secret, taking candid shots of her and then sending the photos to her, and spying on her via the security cameras she asked him to install for peace of mind. After another man was imprisoned for the stalking, Eric waited a while and then started up the same stalking campaign again at Emily's new house in Spring Lake, including installing hidden cameras and microphones inside her home.
- Erik, the titular The Phantom of the Opera to Christine Daae; he is at one point described as "a shadow that followed her like her own shadow and stopped when she stopped". Erik is completely obsessed with Christine and exploits her psychological vulnerability by pretending to be the angel of music sent by her late father, and upon revealing his truth self his grip on Christine becomes tighter and haunts her every step to point where she becomes a nervous wreck when walking around the Opera house.
- Also Raoul de Chagny, to a lesser extent; he also fixates on Christine after having being separated from her since they were children, constantly tries to gain her attention, and even goes so far as to listen at her door and hide in her dressing room. Christine is not impressed, but is more concerned for Raoul's safety as her 1# stalker is insanely jealous of Raoul's relationship with Christine and Erik would likely kill him; so she dissuades Raoul from following her for his own sake.
- In The Pillars of the Earth, After William Hamleigh seizes the Shiring Earldom, he is aware that Aliena, Richard and their servant Matthew are still living in the castle. He stalks and watches over Aliena with freakish fascination, still obsessed with her even after she disgustedly rejected him twice. He breaks into the castle, and after his henchman murders her servant, he forces her brother Richard to watch while he rapes her. He remains obsessed with her for the rest of his life, repeatedly trying to kill her and destroy her life's work, and winds up marrying a girl who looks like she did as a teenager, subjecting the girl to a life of violent rape.
- In President's Vampire, Tania's mild obsession with Cade looks like this sometimes, as she's following him everywhere despite him having a rather off-putting character and not really being interested.
- Mr. Darcy spends a few early chapters of Pride and Prejudice following Elizabeth around in public, staring at her, and eavesdropping on her to the point where Elizabeth is slightly creeped out. When they're both staying in Kent, he stalks her favorite place to walk in the park and spends entire evenings at Rosings staring at her but never speaking to her. This doesn't stem from any malicious intent, however; it's just that Darcy is so socially inept, he has no idea how to act when falling in love.
- Norman who watches Lily's public-access show and persistently begs her to show her feet on-camera, in The Princess Diaries.
- Some characters (and a small minority of readers) take Michael’s behavior towards Angel in Redeeming Love this way. Although his methods of contacting her are entirely legitimate, he continues to romantically pursue her even after she vehemently denies wanting anything to do with him. In-story this is Justified by the fact that he’s trying to rescue her from life as a Stepford Smiler Sex Slave.
- The Sheik of The Sheik, who doesn't even bother to stalk his intended very long before outright kidnapping her. 'Crush' might be a bit of a misnomer, though; he just wants to rape her. Which he does.
- She's Come Undone features a prolonged and wildly convoluted example in Dolores. She develops a sight-unseen crush on her college roommate's boyfriend Dante and sustains it for over seven years until, by sheer happenstance, she discovers where he lives. She moves to a state she's never been before and rents an apartment in his building, all so she can "accidentally" meet him and make him fall in love with her. Dante is aware of none of this until years after they've married, when Dolores finally tells him.
- Shuuen No Shiori Project: While only D-ne’s crush has ever been explicitly stated in canon, C-ta has three cameras in A-ya’s room and a microphone in his bag. He’s doing it because he’s A-ya’s ‘’one and only best friend.’’
- Caelan from the Skulduggery Pleasant novels. He spends his days spying on Valkyrie through her kitchen window. The character is a Take That! at Edward, though it's played with, as while Caelan acts more and more like Edward, Valkyrie starts to act less like Bella, becoming more and more put off by his stalkerish behavior.
- Poor Sansa Stark from A Song of Ice and Fire seems to attract these types of men, ranging from an emotionally fragile Blood Knight, who seems quite confounded by his attraction to her, to a Magnificent Bastard Yandere using her as a Replacement Goldfish for her mother, the woman he'd obsessively loved since childhood.
- Robert B. Parker's private detective Spenser picks one up in Hush Money. After dealing with a stalking case for Susan's friend K.C. Roth, Spenser finds that KC has started stalking him.
- In The Spirit Thief, Eli is watched by Benehime wherever he goes, and she often pops up at his darkest moments to try and convince him to be with her in exchange for saving him. Oh, she's a Physical Goddess who's very, very Yandere for him.
- Sword of Truth: Richard Rahl has a stalker, and she's a gorgeous sorceress with Subtractive Magic dedicated to serving the Imperial Order and punishing herself, who blasts melon-sized holes through the chests of people who get on her bad side, and is completely and hopelessly in love with him. Luckily for him, he manages to sway her to pull a High-Heel–Face Turn and change sides through the power of carving a statue of "Life" and treating her to more than one Character Filibuster and afterwards, she becomes his Black Magician Girl lieutenant. Just another day in the story of the Sword of Truth.
- Edward Cullen from The Twilight Saga falls under this trope quite well, except that Bella returns his affection. Some examples of Edward's stalker behavior are sneaking into Bella's house at night to watch her sleep without her permission, taking the battery out of her car so it can't run, and stalking (and then saving) Bella. No matter how much Stephenie Meyer denies it, he's most definitely a stalker. This is taken to even more ridiculous extremes in the parts of Midnight Sun (2020) that were leaked — it seems that for nearly every chapter of Twilight (2005) when Edward wasn't around, he was actually hiding in the bushes, spying on Bella. It also lets the readers see his thought process, so everyone is privy to him thinking to bring oil the next time he climbs into her room so the window won't squeak and reassuring himself that what he is doing is all right because it's for her own protection.
- Fenwick from Villains by Necessity is a womanizer to begin with, but when he spies Kaylana among the villain protagonists, he immediately decides that he must save her (and give her a personal tour of his quarters) because she's attractive. Doesn't sound creepy? While his constant spying is explainable as keeping tabs on the villains' progress, he obsesses over her presence in specific far more than professionally required. And then resorts to kidnapping her. By dragon. His internal thoughts also reveal he planned to give her an aphrodisiac spiked drink to "loosen her up", with obvious implications.
- Warrior Cats: Spottedleaf spends the first series stalking Firestar, and still watches over him afterwards. Additionally, she also stalks each successive generation of his family. Although, Firestar does love her back, and it is a somewhat popular shipping; in spite of him also truly loving Sandstorm, who he fathered kits with (Leafpool and Squirrelflight).
- If you consider every single thing the author has said as Word of God, then Spottedleaf is officially a stalker.
- Lanfear in The Wheel of Time acts this way towards Rand, the reincarnation of her old lover. Upon first meeting him (in disguise) she flirts heavily, then a few books later she pursues him, aiding him in learning The Power, but then tries to kill him after she hears a rumor that he slept with someone else.
- The eponymous antagonist of Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith, who falls in love with young witch Tiffany Aching. In an attempt to win her heart, he makes snowflakes and icebergs that look like her and ice roses... and oh yeah, he refuses to go away when it's time for spring, creating the threat of perpetual winter.
- Z for Zachariah has a stalker with a something; Loomis is a little too intent on hunting down Ann, for multiple reasons, only one of which is the fact that he wants to rape her. His sanity is a little questionable as well.
- You (Kepnes) has Joe. He uses Beck's Twitter and Facebook feed to learn everything about her and learn where she's going.
