diff --git a/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/internal/ThematicBreakParser.java b/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/internal/ThematicBreakParser.java
index 88ad41ac..0f061322 100644
--- a/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/internal/ThematicBreakParser.java
+++ b/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/internal/ThematicBreakParser.java
@@ -8,6 +8,10 @@ public class ThematicBreakParser extends AbstractBlockParser {
 
     private final ThematicBreak block = new ThematicBreak();
 
+    public ThematicBreakParser(String literal) {
+        block.setLiteral(literal);
+    }
+
     @Override
     public Block getBlock() {
         return block;
@@ -29,7 +33,8 @@ public BlockStart tryStart(ParserState state, MatchedBlockParser matchedBlockPar
             int nextNonSpace = state.getNextNonSpaceIndex();
             CharSequence line = state.getLine().getContent();
             if (isThematicBreak(line, nextNonSpace)) {
-                return BlockStart.of(new ThematicBreakParser()).atIndex(line.length());
+                var literal = String.valueOf(line.subSequence(state.getIndex(), line.length()));
+                return BlockStart.of(new ThematicBreakParser(literal)).atIndex(line.length());
             } else {
                 return BlockStart.none();
             }
diff --git a/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/node/ThematicBreak.java b/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/node/ThematicBreak.java
index f81abaa3..836f8dfa 100644
--- a/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/node/ThematicBreak.java
+++ b/commonmark/src/main/java/org/commonmark/node/ThematicBreak.java
@@ -2,8 +2,21 @@
 
 public class ThematicBreak extends Block {
 
+    private String literal;
+
     @Override
     public void accept(Visitor visitor) {
         visitor.visit(this);
     }
+
+    /**
+     * @return the source literal that represents this node, if available
+     */
+    public String getLiteral() {
+        return literal;
+    }
+
+    public void setLiteral(String literal) {
+        this.literal = literal;
+    }
 }
diff --git a/commonmark/src/test/java/org/commonmark/test/ThematicBreakParserTest.java b/commonmark/src/test/java/org/commonmark/test/ThematicBreakParserTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..91ac76f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/commonmark/src/test/java/org/commonmark/test/ThematicBreakParserTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+package org.commonmark.test;
+
+import org.commonmark.node.ThematicBreak;
+import org.commonmark.parser.Parser;
+import org.commonmark.renderer.html.HtmlRenderer;
+import org.commonmark.testutil.RenderingTestCase;
+import org.junit.Test;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertNotNull;
+
+public class ThematicBreakParserTest {
+
+    private static final Parser PARSER = Parser.builder().build();
+
+    @Test
+    public void testLiteral() {
+        assertLiteral("***", "***");
+        assertLiteral("-- -", "-- -");
+        assertLiteral("  __  __  __  ", "  __  __  __  ");
+        assertLiteral("***", "> ***");
+    }
+
+    private static void assertLiteral(String expected, String input) {
+        var tb = Nodes.find(PARSER.parse(input), ThematicBreak.class);
+        assertNotNull(tb);
+        assertEquals(expected, tb.getLiteral());
+    }
+}