Do we like them?

Do we like Jean Valjean?

A character from Les Misérables (1862)

Our score: 9 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He starts out hardened, but he spends the story choosing mercy and sacrifice, and he keeps doing it even when it costs him.

Jean Valjean is a poor man sentenced to 19 years of hard labour for stealing bread. Victor Hugo's 1862 novel follows him from prison into a France that has little room for ex-convicts. The yellow passport he must carry makes decent people turn him away.

Valjean is bitter and dangerous when he comes out, but an act of unexpected kindness shakes him. He decides to become a better man. The rest of the book is that choice being tested: he builds an honest life, protects people who can't protect themselves, and takes on the care of a young girl, Cosette.

He is not flawless. He lives under false names, he can be fearful and controlling, and his past keeps him on the run. Inspector Javert, who believes people never change, hunts him across the years. Even so, Valjean's instinct is almost always to show mercy, including to people who haven't earned it. That is why he scores 9 out of 10.