About the Novel
Published in 1891, El Filibusterismo — "The Filibustering" — is José Rizal's sequel to Noli Me Tángere, written in exile in Ghent. It follows Crisóstomo Ibarra's return as the vengeful jeweler Simoun, and turns a sharper, more radical eye on Spanish colonial rule than its predecessor. Its publication helped fuel the Philippine Revolution and it remains, alongside the Noli, a cornerstone of Filipino literature.
This app brings Rizal's second novel to your iPhone and iPad in both its original Spanish and a classic Tagalog translation, with a reading experience designed to honour the gravity of the text.
Reading Experience
Dual Language
Switch instantly between the original Spanish (1891) and a classic Tagalog version translated by Patricio Mariano. Your reading position and bookmarks carry across both.
All 39 Chapters
The complete novel — from Sobre-Cubierta to its unflinching final chapter — with chapter illustrations in the woodcut tradition, one per chapter.
Highlights & Bookmarks
Select any passage to highlight and save it. Featured passages curated by the app rotate on the title screen. Share quotes as beautifully designed cards.
Typography-First
Set in Iowan Old Style for the body text and New York for navigation — a pairing chosen to feel like holding the actual book, not a document viewer.
Parchment Aesthetic
A warm heritage aesthetic — parchment fill, ink tones, and serif sensibility throughout.
Chapter Navigation
Previous and next chapter controls at the end of every chapter, so reading flows naturally without returning to the table of contents.
Two Languages, One Novel
Rizal wrote El Filibusterismo in Spanish while in exile in Europe. The app includes the classic Tagalog translation by Patricio Mariano — one of the earliest and most celebrated Filipino-language renderings of the novel — so you can read the work as generations of Filipinos first encountered it.
El original de Rizal
The text as Rizal composed it in Ghent, 1891. Project Gutenberg. Chapters marked Capítulo, parsed from bare Roman numeral headings.
Salin ni Patricio Mariano
The classic Tagalog translation by Patricio Mariano. Project Gutenberg edition. Chapters marked Kabanata, with the original chapter titles.
Available Now
Free to download. No account required. No ads. Just the novel.
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