EL FILIBUSTERISMO PUBLISHED IN GHENT (1891)

-Rizal was busy revising and polishing the manuscript of El Filibusterismo so that it could be ready for the press
-Rizal had begun writing it in October, 1887, while practicing medicine in Calamba, the following year (1888), in London; he made some changes in the plot and corrected some chapters already written. He wrote more chapters in Paris and Madrid, and finished the manuscript in Biarritz on March 29, 1891. It took him, therefore, three years to write his second novel
· July 5, 1891- Rizal left Brussels for Ghent, a famous university city in Belgium
· Rizal reasons for moving to Ghent were (1) the cost of printing in Ghent was cheaper than in Brussels (2) to escape from the enticing attraction of Petite Suzanne Rizal met two compatriots while in Ghent, Jose Alejandro (from Pampanga) and Edilberto Evangelista (from Manila), both studying engineering in the world-famed University of Ghent
· F. Meyer-Van Loo Press (No. 66 Viaanderen Street)-a printing shop that give Rizal the lowest quotation for the publication of his novel, who was willing to print his book on installment basis
· August 6, 1891-the printing of his book had to be suspended because Rizal could no longer give the
necessary funds to the printer
· Valentin Ventura- the savior of the Fili
-When Ventura learned of Rizal’s predicament and immediately sent him the necessary funds
· September 18, 1891- El Filibusterismo came off the press
-Rizal immediately sent on this date two printed copies to Hong Kong—one for Basa and other for Sixto Lopez
· Rizal gratefully donated the original manuscript and an autographed printed copy to Valentin Ventura
· La Publicidad- a Barcelona newspaper, wherein it published a tribute eulogizing the novel’s original style which “is comparable only to the sublime Alexander Dumas” and may well be offered as
“a model and a precious jewel in the now decadent literature of Spain”
· El Nuevo Regimen- the liberal Madrid newspaper that serialized the novel in its issues of October, 1891
· Rizal dedicated El Filibusterismo to Gom-Bur-Za (Don Mariano Gomez, 73 years old; Don Jose Burgos, 35 years old; Jacinto Zamora, 37 years old)
· The original manuscript of El Filibusterismo in Rizal’s own handwriting in now preserved in the Filipiana Division of the Bureau of Public Libraries, Manila. It consists of 270 pages of long sheets of paper
· Two features in the manuscript do not appear in the printed book, namely: the FOREWORD and the
WARNING. These were not put into print to save printing cost
· The title page of El Filibusterismo contains an inscription written by Ferdinand Blumentritt
· El Filibusterismo is a sequel to the Noli. It has little humor, less idealism and less romance than the Noli Me Tangere. It is more revolutionary, more tragic than the first novel
· The characters in El Filibusterismo were drawn by Rizal from real life. Padre Florentino was Father
Leoncio Lopez, Rizal’s friend and priest of Calamba; Isagani, the poet was Vicente Ilustre, Batangueño
friend of Rizal in Madrid and Paulita Gomez, the girl who loved Isagani but married Juanito Pelaez, was
Leonor Rivera