Tolstoy portrays infidelity in Imperial Russia vividly through Anna Karenina’s life. Her passionate affair with Count Vronsky disrupts her social standing, family relationships, and eventually her own peace.
Tolstoy shows the ripple effects of her infidelity, impacting not just Anna, but everyone around her.
The novel balances Anna’s passionate desires against harsh societal judgments, offering insights into the complexities of love’s choices and consequences in a strict moral universe.
Emma Bovary dreams of romance, excitement, and passion beyond her monotonous marriage to a modest country doctor. Though her pursuit of romantic ideals leads her into extramarital relationships, happiness always remains out of reach.
Flaubert examines how boredom and dissatisfaction drive Emma toward infidelity, depicting adultery as both a consequence and cause of personal tragedy.
His nuanced depiction raises questions about marriage expectations, romantic fantasies, and the harsh realities that ultimately lead Emma astray.
In the glittering world Fitzgerald creates, infidelity weaves through relationships against a backdrop of wealth and excess. Gatsby’s obsessive pursuit of married Daisy Buchanan sets in motion destructive events.
Daisy herself struggles with her marriage, torn between security and Gatsby’s romantic allure. Infidelity in Fitzgerald’s novel highlights deeper themes of dreams, idealism, and the moral emptiness that hides beneath lavish parties and luxurious lifestyles of America’s Jazz Age.
Hester Prynne bears societal punishment for adultery openly in this enduring American classic. Wearing the scarlet “A,” she carries shame publicly, while her lover’s identity remains hidden.
Hawthorne probes the private and public ramifications of infidelity through Hester’s ostracized existence and quiet strength. Her affair brings both suffering and strength, questioning Puritan morality, personal guilt, and redemption in a constrained society.
In Greene’s emotional novel set in wartime London, Maurice Bendrix reflects on a passionate affair ended mysteriously by Sarah Miles. Her motivations remain unclear to him, prompting an intense exploration of jealousy, faith, and obsession.
Greene conveys how infidelity combines physical desire, spiritual crisis, and longing for deeper truths about love.
Maurice’s obsession with understanding Sarah highlights the emotional complexity of love and betrayal, leading readers through spiritual questions surrounding faithfulness and intimacy.
Waller’s bittersweet story centers on Francesca Johnson, an Iowa housewife whose quiet routine shatters when she unexpectedly falls for a traveling photographer named Robert Kincaid.
Their brief but powerful affair reveals her hidden depths and passions, sparking self-discovery that contrasts sharply with her ordinary married life.
Infidelity in the novel signals not just betrayal, but also a transformative and deeply moving exploration of true connections and the roads not taken.
Lawrence’s frank and controversial portrayal of adultery startled readers because of its explicit scenes and candid depiction of class barriers. Lady Constance Chatterley’s dissatisfaction with her injured husband pushes her towards Oliver Mellors, their gamekeeper.
Their affair challenges class conventions and societal taboos. Lawrence vividly represents how emotional and physical needs neglected in marriage find fulfillment elsewhere, inviting reflection on intimacy, social status, and the personal sacrifices for genuine human connection.
Wharton weaves infidelity subtly through the social fabric of 1870s New York society. Engaged Newland Archer grows restless after meeting unconventional Ellen Olenska, creating temptation that exposes strict societal expectations and hypocrisies around marriage.
Desire conflicts harshly with propriety, illustrating the intense struggles individuals face when caught between passion and convention. Wharton reveals the subtle yet deep emotional betrayals beneath the calm surface of polite civilization.
This epic narrative follows Yuri Zhivago amid Russia’s Revolution and turmoil. Yuri finds himself drawn passionately to the beautiful Lara, even though each is separately married. Their charged relationship becomes strength and vulnerability during adversity.
Infidelity here thrives amid war and hardship, emphasizing human passion and emotional connections as essential survival forces, transcending traditional moral judgments in times of overwhelming upheaval.
Murakami draws readers into the protagonist Toru Watanabe’s emotional landscape following the death of his good friend. He develops intimate relationships with two women simultaneously, pulling him into emotional complexity and moral ambiguity.
Through Toru’s conflicts of love, loyalty, and guilt, Murakami explores how relationships interplay and become messy and complicated through shared grief, lingering regrets, and unmet emotional desires.
Cain’s gripping noir thriller depicts passion and murder tightly tied together. Frank Chambers’ attraction to Cora Papadakis leads them swiftly to an illicit, dangerous affair even as they plot against her husband.
Rather than romanticize infidelity, Cain places passion at the heart of impulsive decisions, escalating dramatically due to illicit desires. Readers see stark consequences unfold from reckless infidelity driven by raw attraction and greed.
Groff views marriage from two starkly different perspectives in this powerful novel. Lotto and Mathilde’s seemingly perfect union unfolds in two parts, each revealing shocking secrets hidden by the other spouse.
Infidelity appears through omissions, misunderstandings, and physical betrayals, unraveling the idea of truth in marriage. Groff’s portrayal highlights deception, compromise, and complexity within marital bonds, offering profound emotional depth.
The quiet suburban life of Frank and April Wheeler masks their turbulent internal dissatisfaction. The distance growing within their marriage leads Frank toward infidelity, testing their crumbling bond.
Yates starkly portrays their lives, showing how infidelity appears as symptom and catalyst of unhappiness and resentment. The novel delivers raw observations about disillusionment, conformity, and marital dysfunction hidden beneath the façade of suburban American prosperity.
Hart’s concise exploration of obsession and betrayal follows an unnamed narrator’s destructive affair with his son’s fiancé. Infidelity emerges violently, fueled by uncontrollable passion and a damaging obsession.
Hart crafts an intense psychological portrait, presenting adultery not merely as attraction, but as a force capable of devastating families and permanently altering the paths of lives, provoking readers to question the destructive capacity of forbidden desires.
Franzen’s expansive family saga portrays the Lambert family’s flawed lives. Through various flawed characters, the novel examines marital disappointment, personal dissatisfaction, and infidelities that provoke familial ruptures and demands for confrontation.
Franzen’s incisive narrative captures how individuals justify infidelity, revealing complexities, contradictions, and conflicts within personal and family life.
Infidelity surfaces as a reflection of deeper emotional struggles and pervasive dissatisfaction, highlighting underlying conflicts in contemporary family relationships.