The Weight of Ink: Plot Summary

The Weight of Ink is a historical fiction novel written by Rachel Kadish, published in 2017. The story is set in London in the 1660s and the early 21st century.

The novel is told through the perspectives of two female characters from different times: Helen Watt, a Jewish professor of history in the present day, and Ester Velasquez, a Portuguese Jewish scribe living in London in the 1660s.

Plot Summary

The Weight of Ink Summary

In November 2000, the novel opens in England, introducing Helen Watt, a British historian with a specialization in 17th-century Jewish history. One day, she receives a call from a former student who owns a historic house in Richmond, which had recently undergone renovations. During the process, papers and documents from the 1600s were discovered, sparking Helen’s interest in this rare and valuable find.

To review the documents, Helen enlists the help of Aaron Levy, a young American graduate student. As they examine the collection, they come across letters written by HaCoen Mendes, a notable rabbi and scholar who was an important figure in the 17th-century London Jewish community after fleeing religious persecution in Portugal to settle in Amsterdam.

What surprises them even more is the discovery that a young woman served as Mendes’ scribe, granting her access to his philosophical and religious scholarship. This revelation captivates both Helen and Aaron and sets them on a journey to uncover the story of this remarkable woman.

Helen and Aaron team up to investigate the life of Ester, Mendes’ scribe, while both grappling with their own secrets and regrets. As Helen nears the end of her academic career and battles Parkinson’s disease, she looks back regretfully on a relationship from her past.

Decades ago, she fell in love with a Jewish man named Dror while in Israel, but she chose to return to England and focus on her studies, fearing they would never truly understand each other. Meanwhile, Aaron is struggling with his thesis and feeling aimless. He also longs for Marisa, with whom he had a brief relationship before she left to travel to Israel.

The story alternates between the modern-day narrative and 17th-century London, where Ester Velazquez shares her own perspective. Born into a Portuguese Jewish family who sought refuge in Amsterdam, Ester received an unconventional education and moved to London in 1657 with her brother and Rabbi HaCoen Mendes.

After her brother ran away, Ester began working as a scribe for Mendes and eventually became the companion to Mary da Costa Mendes, the daughter of the rabbi’s nephew. Through Ester’s own story, the novel weaves together a complex tapestry of love, loss, and the search for knowledge across time and place.

As time went on, Rabbi Mendes became increasingly concerned that Ester’s education and work as a scribe were corrupting her. He urged her to marry and embrace a more traditional life. But Ester had grown too attached to her independence and intellectual pursuits.

She refused to marry and, starting around 1665, began writing her own letters and documents under a male pseudonym, delving into philosophical and theological questions that interested her. She even invented a supposed crisis in a Jewish community in Florence to persuade the rabbi to let her resume scribing.

Ester believed that love and marriage would stifle her intellectual life, so she repeatedly turned down marriage proposals from a wealthy Jewish man named Manuel HaLevy, who admired her confidence and stubbornness. Instead, Ester fell in love with a young Englishman named John Tilbury.

During the summer of 1665, the deadly plague swept through London, causing many to flee the city in hopes of escaping infection. Rabbi Mendes was too ill to leave, but Ester refused to abandon him, despite the urging of both John and Manuel. Ester was also concerned for her friend Mary, who had become pregnant by an English actor named Thomas Farrow.

After Rabbi Mendes’s death, Ester moved in with Mary to care for her, but sadly, Mary succumbed to the plague. Ester eventually recovered from the disease and faced anti-Semitic threats, but she managed to make her way to Richmond, where a wealthy man named Benjamin HaLevy lived.

Benjamin was the father of Manuel, who had died from the plague, but Ester persuaded him to allow her to marry his other son, Alvaro. Although Alvaro was gay, the marriage provided them with companionship and respectability, allowing them to protect each other’s secrets.

After settling in Richmond with her husband Alvaro, Ester continued writing to prominent philosophers using male pen names for nearly three decades. However, upon her death in 1691, she requested that Alvaro burn all of her papers.

Alvaro disobeyed her wishes and instead hid the documents in their home. These papers eventually lead Aaron and Helen to discover Ester’s remarkable story and the lengths she went to pursue her intellectual passions despite societal expectations.

Helen, content that Ester’s legacy will live on, chooses to end her life by suicide before succumbing to a long illness. She leaves a collection of Ester’s documents to Aaron, who plans to use them as the basis for his dissertation.

Aaron also becomes intrigued by the possibility that Ester may have been the granddaughter of William Shakespeare, prompting further research.