Proust

Some of the features Proust uses to introduce his characters have nothing to do with the present (paritally the point I suppose). The narrator will meet someone at a party or introduce a scene where someone enters a party and then meticulously explain how various couples do not genuinely reflect gender stereotypes and then explain how the defects in one gender are transferred to the other, according to Natural Laws (which he simultaneously supports and deconstructs [he doesn't provide an example of what genuine gender stereotypes are but constantly appeals to them through vibrant yet vivisecting analogies]). In addition, the dialogue is generally terse, unlike, say, portions of The Magic Mountain, and replaced by a dreamlike rationality which coincidentally functions as a subjective coruscating condemnation of quaintly co-ordinated caprice (mitigated by intellectual assiduity [he discusses whatever he wants but his incongruous flow contains a mellifluous melody]) and an objective aerobic analysis of athletic artistry (mitigated by his assiduous intellect [the ideas he brings up resound prominently but are unified problematically]).