The Noli and The FilI are perhaps the most famous Filipino books by the most famous Filipino, José Rizal. They cost our foremost hero his life — and would mean arrest, torture, and even death for anybody who possessed a copy.
These novels have shaped not only our identities but our fate as a nation. And they speak to us still after more than one hundred years.
To have the first edition of the Fili and second editions of both Noli and Fili are simply extraordinary.
- Lisa Guerrero Nakpil
Rizal’s second novel, El Filibusterismo, was dedicated to the three priests, Gomez, Burgos and Zamora, who were executed because of their supposed participation in the Mutiny of Cavite of 1872, first revolutionary campaign of modern Philippine nationalism. The word had a broad meaning in the Philippines in the 19th century, when Spaniards considered 'filibusterismo' to mean the idea of the breaking away of the colony from the mother country, and 'filibusteros' were those who aspired for the realization of this idea. Rizal, however, described a filibuster as:
Those who do not raise their hats to Spaniards. Those who only greet a friar instead of kissing his hand or his habit. Those who offer resistance to being addressed with the familiar "tu" by the best Spaniard. Those who subscribe to a periodical from Spain or another European country. Those who, at elections, give their vote to a candidate other than the one recommended by the priest.
Those who read books other than miracle stories and biographies of saints.
"In brief, all those," Rizal sums up, "who in modern civilized countries and under normal conditions would be considered good citizens, lovers of progress and enlightenment. All of these are looked upon as filibusters and enemies of public order and, like a lightning conductor, draw misery and wretchedness upon themselves during turbulent times."
The Fili, as the book was called in its abbreviated form, is a continuation of the Noli in its plot. Again, the main character is Crisostomo Ibarra, but this time, however, assumes the role of Simoun, a business magnate and jeweler, whose only thoughts are to overthrow the existing colonial rule. He is moved partly by political motives and partly by a personal desire for revenge. He proceeds in accordance with the principle that the worse the conditions are, the earlier the revolution will be. Thus, he uses his wealth to promote the corruption of the ruling class, its arrogance towards the natives and the oppression machinery — and at the same time to draw the attention of the oppressed people to the conditions which he himself, to some extent, has caused, and to provoke their opposition. All of Simoun's plans, however, miscarry; the revolution does not succeed and Simoun seeks refuge in the solitude of the mountains, where strangely, there is a priest with whom the fugitive weighs his actions carefully before his death.
The Fili was essentially a call to revolution although with many limitations. It was published in an extensively more relaxed atmosphere than the Noli and created a stir, when for the first time, a Spanish newspaper, the liberal "Nuevo Regimen" (New Regime) reproduced the novel in daily sequels in October 1891.
The friars too were convinced of the value of the Fili and were said to have offered Rizal a professorship at the University of Manila, an estate and 100,000 pesos in cash for the retraction of both novels. To this offer, Rizal is supposed to have answered that he will not undo with the left hand what he has done with the right. If his books were true, then he would have written about them, the friars. If not, then they would have nothing to fear. "You are trying to drown me in a glass of water, but you cannot even succeed in doing it in an ocean." He dismissed brusquely even the request of his sister to consider the offer.
The copy of El Filibusterismo being offered was published in Ghent in 1891. It is hardbound in a leather binding and is in excellent condition.
-Martin I. Tinio, Jr.
Provenance: Provenance: An illustrious Spanish collection