Fantine is a character in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables.

Fantine is first introduced as one in a group of four enchanting girls: the others being Dahlia, Zéphine, and Favourite. Her parents and origins are unknown. She is described as having "gold and pearls for her dowry; but the gold was on her head and the pearls in her mouth," by Hugo. Fantine was passionately in love with a man named Félix Tholomyès, who fathers their illegitimate daughter Cosette. He one day takes Fantine, her friends and their own male companions on an outing. They finish the day at a restaurant, only for the women to be abandoned by the men with a goodbye note. While Fantine's friends laugh it off, Fantine herself is heartbroken and is left to care for her daughter alone.

By the time Cosette is approximately three, Fantine arrives at Montfermeil and meets the Thénardiers who are owners of an inn. She asks thenm to care for Cosette when she sees their daughters Éponine and Azelma playing outside. Fantine's only will to live is keeping Cosette alive. She becomes a worker in Mayor Madeleine's (a.k.a. Jean Valjean's) factory.

Fantine is fired by a woman supervisor, Madame Victurnien, when she finds out that Fantine is an unwed mother, without the knowledge of the mayor. From here, Fantine sells her belongings, her hair, her two front teeth, and goes on to be a prostitute to earn money for Cosette. During a January evening, a dandy called Bamatabois heckles her and shoves snow down her dress when she ignores him. Fantine ferociously attacks him. Javert, the town's police inspector, immediately arrests her while Bamatabois sneaks away. Valjean comes to help Fantine, and comes to find out the reasons she became a prostitute and why she attacked Bamatabois. He feels sorry for the innocent Fantine and Cosette, and tells her that he will retrieve Cosette for her. He sends Fantine to the hospital, suffering from tuberculosis.

After Valjean reveals his true identity at Champmathieu’s trial, he goes back to see Fantine at the hospital. She asks about Cosette, and the doctor lies to her saying that Cosette is at the hospital but cannot see Fantine until her health improves. She is appeased by this, and even mistakenly thinks that she hears Cosette laughing and singing. Suddenly, she and Valjean see Javert. Valjean tries to privately ask Javert for three days to obtain Cosette, but he loudly refuses. Fantine realizes that Cosette was never retrieved and frantically asks where she is. Javert impatiently yells at Fantine to be silent, and additionally, tells her Valjean’s true identity. Shocked by these revelations, she suffers a severe fit of trembling, falls back on her bed and dies. Valjean then walks to Fantine, whispers to her and kisses her hand. Fantine’s body is later thrown in a public grave.

In the stage musical of the same name, Fantine is one of the central characters.

Fantine is featured in the following songs in the musical:

• At the End of the Day — Fantine who works in Jean Valjean, now disguised as M. Madeleine's, factory is exposed by another female worker as having a secret daughter after receiving a letter from Thénardier. She is deemed a prostitute, using her daughter to pick up extra wages. The factory's foreman, from whom she had rejected advances, sacks her.
• I Dreamed a Dream — Fantine is abandoned, singing of dreams gone by and the man whom she once loved (Cosette's mysterious father) who abandoned her and her daughter.
• Lovely Ladies — Fantine finds herself among prostitutes and proceeds to sell her locket to an old woman, her hair to a crone and ultimately herself (she doesn't sell her teeth in the musical). As she must lower herself to the life of a prostitute, she begins to grow ill.
• Fantine's Arrest — One man, Bamatabois, wants to buy Fantine's services, but she rejects and hits him after he toys with her. Javert arrives to arrest her for "disturbing the peace", but Valjean intervenes. After hearing Fantine's story, he sees that she visits a doctor and not be sent off to jail, to the horror of Javert.
• Come to Me (Fantine's Death) — The dying Fantine hallucinates that Cosette is indeed there in the sickroom with her. Valjean comes in and vows to protect and take care of her daughter, Cosette. Fantine dies shortly after.
• Valjean's Death — Fantine returns as a ghost and escorts the dying Valjean to Heaven, praising him for having raised her daughter to adulthood.

• French text of Les Misérables
• Les Misérables at Project Gutenberg – English translation.
• Fantine at the Internet Movie Database
• Search for Fantine at the Internet Broadway Database