I'm so squirrelly right now I can't even make a coherent post. However, I have been re-reading These Old Shades, the oldest, and some would argue, the finest of Georgette Heyer's novels. It contains - as much as anything could, for he leaps from the page given the least chance - the unforgettable Duke of Avon, Justin Alistair, otherwise known as Satanas.
Heyer's heroes have undoubtedly flavored my Snapes along the way, but it occurs to me, and I wonder if you concur ...
Is not Avon more of a Lucius Malfoy than a Severus Snape?
~off to drink margaritas, think of
mischievous_t, and ponder the glories of a Regency or Georgian hero~