troisoiseaux

I'm not entirely sure one is supposed to be rooting for Lymond in the first book, although the ending is (I think) supposed to tend that way. There's Tragic Past, and More Tragic Past (just in the first book), and Extreme Generational Tragic Past if you stick around through the sixth book. In retrospect, Lymond is certainly doing his best to piss everybody off in every possible way, along with maybe redeeming himself, or not bothering to redeem himself, or something. Conflicted, that's it! He's conflicted, but complex, and fun to watch if you aren't invested in taking sides. The show he puts on is terrific.

This corresponds with Wimsey in that Peter is certainly performing his social persona, sometimes on several levels and often for detective or other purposes, and he isn't above grand emotional gestures, but the scale is less insanely grandiose. Peter is, after all, a proper Englishman, and Lymond is a wild and wily Scot.