Gavroche (French pronunciation: [ɡavʁɔʃ]) is a fictional character in the 1862 novel Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.

Gavroche plays a short yet significant role in the many adaptations of Les Misérables, sharing the populist ideology of the Friends of the ABC and joining the revolutionaries in the June 1832 rebellion.

Due to a freak accident, the two boys are separated from Magnon without identification, and encounter Gavroche purely by chance.

The character of Gavroche may have been inspired by a figure in Eugène Delacroix's painting Liberty Leading the People, which depicts the successful 1830 July Revolution, two years before the events described in the novel.

Like Gavroche, he was killed while adventuring himself on open terrain between two fighting forces in order to accomplish a non-hostile yet essential action for his faction.

Mario Vargas Llosa calls Gavroche "one of the most appealing and tender characters in fiction", who, despite his relatively small role in the novel, "brings a breath of happiness and humanity a love of life, wit, goodness, and courage in the face of adversity.

"[5] John Frey says that Gavroche possesses "a Gallic spirit (l'esprit gaulois), unknown to the more serious child outcasts found in the novels of Charles Dickens, little Joe, for example, in Bleak House".

The words of the song sung by Gavroche before his death are a parody of conservative views about the French Revolution: blaming all alleged modern social and moral ills on the influence of Voltaire and Rousseau.

[8] Hugo devotes a lengthy chapter to importance of argot to the evolution of language in order to defend the extensive use he makes of it.

Since the original publication of Les Misérables in 1862, the character of Gavroche has been in a large number of adaptations in numerous types of media based on the novel, including books, films,[9] musicals, plays, and games.

I started seeing all the characters of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables—Valjean, Javert, Gavroche, Cosette, Marius, and Éponine—in my mind's eye, laughing, crying, and singing onstage.