There are many thematically significant literary allusions in The History of Love. The writer Isaac Babel (1894–1940), as eulogized by Leo Gursky, has unmistakable affinities with Zvi Litvinoff's description of Leo's own writing style, and the description of Rosa Litvinoff's writing style in the early chapter "Forgive Me". The Polish writer Bruno Schulz (1892–1942) and his classic The Street of Crocodiles are mentioned several times in the novel, as is Nicanor Parra (1914–2018), whose 1954 book of antipoems is translated by Charlotte Singer and read by the mysterious Jacob Marcus. A passing reference to "Don Quixote" by Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) is also significant because Don Quixote is a novel that contains stand-alone stories within it, much in the same way that The History of Love contains excerpts of a mysterious book called "The History of Love." Other important literary allusions in the novel include references to James Joyce, Franz Kafka, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Leo Tolstoy, Rubén Darío and Pablo Neruda. Although he is never directly mentioned, the novel also alludes to Isaac Bashevis Singer in that Leo's son's name is Isaac and Alma's last name is Singer.
Miguel de Unamuno published a short story in Spanish, "A History of Love", with similar themes to the novel.
