About the book

Returning to the Philippines after studying in Europe, Crisostomo Ibarra hopes to renew his relationship with Maria Clara and improve life in his hometown. His father's fate and the hostility surrounding that memory complicate the homecoming almost immediately. A project that should express public generosity becomes entangled with clerical influence, local rivalries, and the fears of people whose security depends upon remaining obedient. Rizal moves through dinner parties, family troubles, official encounters, and scenes of poverty to reveal how authority reaches into intimate experience. The novel's humor can be cutting, but its social panorama also gives weight to lives easily dismissed by the powerful. Charles Derbyshire's English version bears the title The Social Cancer.

Education and reform
Colonial authority
Love and social pressure

Why read it

Its broad social world shows why a seemingly modest reform can threaten an entire arrangement of power.

English translation by Charles Derbyshire, 1912

Contents and reading sections

Section 1
Section 2
Section 3
Section 4
Section 5
Section 6
Section 7
Section 8
Section 9
Section 10
Section 11
Section 12
Section 13
Section 14
Section 15
Section 16
Section 17
Section 18
Section 19
Section 20
Section 21
Section 22
Section 23
Section 24
Section 25
Section 26
Section 27
Section 28
Section 29
Section 30
Section 31
Section 32
Section 33
Section 34
Section 35
Section 36
Section 37
Section 38
Section 39
Section 40
Section 41
Section 42
Section 43
Section 44
Section 45
Section 46
Section 47
Section 48
Section 49
Section 50
Section 51
Section 52
Section 53
Section 54
Section 55
Section 56
Section 57
Section 58
Section 59
Section 60
Section 61
Section 62
Section 63
Section 64
Section 65
Section 66
Section 67
Section 68
Section 69
Section 70
Section 71
Section 72
Section 73
Section 74
Section 75
Section 76
Section 77
Section 78
Section 79
Section 80
Section 81
Section 82
Section 83
Section 84
Section 85
Section 86

About the book

Why read it

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