Adaptations always make Jean Valjean the main POV character of Les Mis, but that’s not true in the novel! The novel has a genuinely fascinating narrative structure where we spend most of our time with other POV characters, viewing Jean Valjean “from the outside.” To explain—-
The general structure of Les Mis is that
We meet a new character and learn about their daily life, personality, and backstory
Then we see this character meet Jean Valjean, always under a different false identity and alias. We see how the new character interacts with Valjean and how both of them are changed by the encounter.
Smash cut to Jean Valjean’s Pov as he has an emotional breakdown about whatever happened
We meet another character and learn about their life and backstory —
The novel begins by introducing us to the life and backstory of Bishop Myriel, and then we see Myriel meet Jean Valjean. After that we meet the grisette Fantine and learn about her abandonment, and then we see her meet “Mayor Madeleine.” After that we meet Cosette suffering under the Thenardiers, and then we see her encounter a mysterious “Threadbare Millionaire. Then we meet Marius all absorbed in his love for a girl, then we see him encounter her strange father “Monsieur LeBlanc.” Etc etc etc
So we get this really interesting structure where Jean Valjean IS the closest thing the novel has to a “main character”— But we also spend most of the story viewing him from the outside, through the eyes of other people.