Les Misérables Characters

Sure, Les Misérables has more characters than all the seasons of Supernatural put together. But our main man is Jean Valjean: it's his character growth—and Javert's inability to believe in it—...

Cinderella ChildhoodIf we were Buzzfeed, we'd title this section "Undeniable Proof that Cosette and Cinderella Are the Same Person."Instead, we'll just say that Cosette's story bears a remarkable s...

The Young Party-BoyValjean may be the main character of Les Mis, but Monseigneur Myriel is its heart. But this saintly bishop wasn't always the paragon we know him to be. Turns out, he was a bit of...

Young LoveWhen we meet Fantine, she's an innocent girl who likes to hang out in Paris with her friends, probably drawing hearts all over 1D posters or whatever the nineteenth-century French equival...

The BloodhoundWhen we call Javert a bloodhound, we mean it. This guy is easy to understand, because he has one motivation, one goal, and one purpose in life: to trust in the law and enforce it to i...

Deadbeat DadWe'll just say it: the romantic hero is always the least interesting character in a story. Give us Enjolras or Thénardier over lovesick Marius any time. Instead of being passionately f...

Scum of the EarthVictor Hugo has been able to show us the good side of a convict, a prostitute, and even a monomaniacal police officer, not to mention the countless urchins swarming the streets of...

Éponine is the eldest daughter in the Thénardier family. The first thing we learn about her is that she has the raspy, unhealthy voice of an old woman when she's only sixteen years old (think Emm...

Gavroche is a plucky young scamp who knows the streets and won't let anyone tell him what to do. But don't start going ruffling his hair or pinching his cheeks, because that adorable boyish exterio...

Madame Thénardier is Monsieur Thénardier's partner in crime, and she acts every bit as terribly as he does, although we don't get to spend as much time with her as we might like. The main thing w...

Monsieur Mabeuf works at a church is Paris, and he shows up as the recipient of Valjean's generosity and the provider of key info to Marius—namely, that Marius's dad loved him after all. He might...

If only the good die young, that must mean that only the nasty live to a ripe old age. Monsieur Gillenormand, Marius' aristocratic granddad, is exhibit A: by the end of this book, he's well into hi...

If Enjolras went to your high school, he'd be the really shouty kid who was constantly trying to get you to sign petitions and whom you secretly had a crush on, even though your friends all said he...

Mademoiselle is the loyal, loving sister of Bishop Myriel. And like him, she devotes her entire life to helping others. The novel describes her early on, saying: She had never been pretty. Her life...

Fauchelevent is an old man whose life Jean Valjean saves, even though Fauchelevent has spent the majority of his time badmouthing Valjean. Rather than spend a long time showing us what Fauchelevent...