Backstory
Hugo describes Fantine in the early chapters of the novel. "Fantine was one of those beings which are brought forth from the heart of the people... She was called Fantine because she had never been known by any other name...". The name is a nickname, a contraction of "enfantine" ("babes", or "little one"). Her actual name is never identified. She is one of a group of four girls who become the girlfriends of young, wealthy students.
All four were ravishingly beautiful. As to Fantine, she was joy itself. Her splendid teeth had evidently been endowed by God with one function - that of laughing. Her thick blond tresses, inclined to wave, and easily escaping from their confinement, obligated her to fasten them continually. Her rosy lips babbled with enchantment. The corners of her mouth, turned up voluptuously, seemed to encourage audacity; but her long, shadowy eyelashes were cast discreetly down towards the lower part of her face as if to check its festive tendencies. Her whole toilette was indescribably harmonious and enchanting. Fantine was beautiful, without being too conscious of it. She possessed two types of beauty - style and rhythm. Style is the force of the ideal, rhythm is its movement."
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