Jean Valjean (French: [ʒɑ̃ val.ʒɑ̃]) is the protagonist of Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables. The story depicts the character's struggle to lead a normal life and redeem himself after serving a 19-year-long prison sentence for stealing bread to feed his sister's starving children and attempting to escape from prison. Valjean is also known in the novel as Monsieur Madeleine, Ultime Fauchelevent (sometimes called Tranchelevent), Monsieur Leblanc, and Urbain Fabre. Valjean and police Inspector Javert, who repeatedly encounters Valjean and attempts to return him to prison, have become archetypes in literary culture. In the popular imagination, the character of Jean Valjean came to represent Hugo himself. Source: Wikipedia (en)