Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1594) tells the tragic tale of a gifted man who rejects social and moral boundaries and ends in destruction. In the same way that Giovanni flaunts social mores and commits incest with his sister, Faustus sells his soul to the devil in exchange for forbidden knowledge and power. Both plays critique the ideal of Renaissance individualism; in both, excessive independence and intellectual pride lead to death.

Mathilda (written in the nineteenth century but first published in 1959) a short novel by Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, also treats the incest theme boldly, though the act itself remains unconsummated. The novel tells the story of a father whose wife dies and who begins to have erotic feelings for his daughter, who reminds him so much of his dead wife. Fearing he may succumb to temptation, he leaves the daughter and...