The find!

I gave in to book lust again yesterday. Hambet had fallen asleep on my lap and resisted my efforts to put him to bed, so I spent a little time surfing around the ‘net with a sleeping baby on my lap. I had been thinking about a book I thoroughly enjoyed as a pre-teen and thought I’d see if I could find a copy. I remembered the title, Elizabeth, Elizabeth, but couldn’t remember the author.
Googling the title alone was not much help, but adding a few words from the book itself helped. I tried “Elizabeth “Elizabeth” + aunt + Scotland and finally found a good hit in a Scottish tourism site that referred to the book and its author, Eileen Dunlop.
The book is hard to describe, but it’s a real page-turner. (And I liked it for more than just the obvious reason!) It’s a time-travel fantasy, in which a modern-day Elizabeth finds herself spending the summer at a Scottish castle with her aunt. Her aunt is a historian who has been spending several years researching the history of the great noble family that once lived at the castle. Elizabeth had once been close to her aunt, but recently her aunt has grown distant and cold.
The summer has a dismal start. Elizabeth is bored and unhappy, until she comes across an antique mirror stuck in the back of her bureau. She finds that the mirror has the power to transport her back to the castle as it was in the 18th century. Elizabeth finds herself living that life as another Elizabeth, the daughter of the lord of the castle.
Modern-day Elizabeth finds this spooky, but fun. As the summer wears on and her aunt grows more and more difficult to live with, Modern-day Elizabeth finds herself spending more and more time in Past Elizabeth’s life. She is immersed in past Elizabeth’s world — in past Elizabeth’s family, her studies, her accomplishments — and that past world becomes more compelling to her than her own modern-day world. And the beckoning of the mirror grows almost irresistible.
The pacing and momentum in this book is just incredible — it’s been almost twenty years since the last time I saw a copy, and I still remember my heart pounding as I tore through the last chapters. I’m looking forward to reading it through an adult’s eyes, especially reflecting on Elizabeth’s immersion in the past compared to modern-day forms of escapist fantasy (especially in media such as computer games.)
Alas, this book is out of print — truly there is no justice under the sun. I was astonished to find used copies going between $44 to almost $100! I finally found one for a much more reasonable price, and it’s on the way. I’m so looking forward to this.
This book has also been published under the title Robinsheugh. Libraries might have a copy. Mine does not, and I was not willing to wait for inter-library loan.