 The first chapter of "Cities of the Plain" ("Soddom and Gomorrah") includes a detailed account of a sexual encounter between M. de Charlus, the novel's most prominent male homosexual, and his tailor.Critics have often observed that while the character of the narrator is ostensibly heterosexual, Proust intimates that the narrator is a closeted homosexual.The narrator's manner towards male homosexuality is consistently aloof, yet the narrator is unaccountably knowledgeable.