Summary

Pages 102 - 105—As in previous chapter opening essays, “Vertigo” begins with a composition linking a current observation in Paris with an occurrence from the past. James looked out the window and observed Parisian women greeting each other on the street. Noticing their modish attire of “dark coats belted tightly around their slim waists” and “scarves [that] flashed magenta, lavender, dull gold,” she observed that these women appeared to be “inhabitants of a different world” and her complete opposite (102). The sight of these elegant women transported the author back to her childhood in a rural Minnesota town of less than 2,500, attending school in clothing her mother fashioned from dining room curtains printed with Christopher Columbus-era sailing ships on them (102-103). Intuitively understanding that the women she saw on the street had “never worn dining room curtains,” James relates her high...