FOREWORD Now we meet Fantine. She is young and beautiful, and in love with a man in Paris. But she has no family, and no money. For Fantine, this is the love of her life; for the man in Paris, it is just a summer of love. Men are not kind to women. They have their fun, and then they walk away. The man in Paris goes home to his rich family, and leaves poor Fantine with a child, a little girl called Cosette. Fantine must find work, but how? Fantine has a child but no husband, and a woman without a husband is nothing. Worse than nothing. People are not kind to a woman with a child but no husband. They turn their faces away, they close their doors, they say, ‘There’s no work here for a woman like you.’ Fantine loves her daughter dearly, but what can she do? So, in 1818, in a village near Paris, she leaves her little daughter with Monsieur and Madame Thénardier. They ask for seven francs a month. Fantine pays the money, holds her daughter in her arms for the last time, and leaves. She takes the road

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