El Filibusterismo

Thirteen years after the events of Noli, Crisostomo Ibarra is presumed dead. He is not. He has returned in disguise as Simoun, a fabulously wealthy jeweler who has bought his way into the confidence of the very colonial officials he despises.

Simoun has two obsessions. He wants to rescue Maria Clara from the convent where she has hidden herself away. And he wants revolution. His strategy is chilling: rather than fight the abuses of the regime, he encourages them. He pushes corrupt officials to be even crueler, betting that if he makes the suffering of the people unbearable enough, they will finally rise up. He is using injustice as a fuse.

Around him swirls a new generation. Basilio, the boy from Noli whose mother Sisa lost her mind, is now a promising medical student. He and his peers want modest reforms, like the right to teach in Spanish. They learn, painfully, that the system has no intention of granting even that. As their peaceful hopes collapse, Simoun's violent plan gathers force toward a horrifying climax involving a wedding, a lamp, and a hidden bomb.

The novel does not end in triumph. Simoun's plot fails, and as he dies he is gently confronted by Father Florentino with the book's hardest question: does the end ever justify these means? Rizal, through that priest, suggests that freedom won through hatred and blood is not yet freedom. The people must first become worthy of it.