Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)

By Jose Rizal and Harold Augenbraum

The great novel of the Philippines

In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, "The Noli," as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Release date: Jun 27, 2006
• ISBN: 9781440649370

Jose Rizal

José Rizal (1861-1896) was a Filipino poet, novelist, sculptor, painter, and national hero. Born in Calamba, Rizal was raised in a mestizo family of eleven children who lived and worked on a farm owned by Dominican friars. As a boy, he excelled in school and won several poetry contests. At the University of Santo Tomas, he studied philosophy and law before devoting himself to ophthalmology upon hearing of his mother’s blindness. In 1882, he traveled to Madrid to study medicine before moving to Germany, where he gave lectures on Tagalog. In Heidelberg, while working with pioneering ophthalmologist Otto Becker, Rizal finished writing his novel Touch Me Not (1887). Now considered a national epic alongside its sequel The Reign of Greed (1891), Touch Me Not is a semi-autobiographical novel that critiques the actions of the Catholic Church and Spanish Empire in his native Philippines. In 1892, he returned to Manila and founded La Liga Filipina, a secret organization dedicated to social reform. Later that year, he was deported to Zamboanga province, where he built a school, hospital, and water supply system. During this time, the Katipunan, a movement for liberation from Spanish rule, began to take shape in Manila, eventually resulting in the Philippine Revolution in 1896. For his writing against colonialism and association with active members of Katipunan, Rizal was arrested while traveling to Cuba via Spain. On December 30, 1896, he was executed by firing squad on the outskirts of Manila and buried in an unmarked grave.