diced b Jos e S. Arc a, - non

Rizal's chef-d'oeuvre are two novels, literary works that entertain whiledelivering a serious message. Perhaps he could not have done otherwise. Helived in the second half of the nineteenth century, also known as the "age ofnovels." From the Greek Daphne and Chloe, a story of unrequited love, to theeighteenth-century Emile, Rousseau's didactic novel, we have a full range ofwriting that had gradually realized its potential to voice out the conscience ofthe people. And in the Ateneo, Rizal came to know the language of the museswhich he confessed he had learned to love.He was only twenty-five years old when he finished his Noli me tangere.A twenty-five year old writing in a foreign tongue in such a way as to electrifyan entire nation could not have been a mere "mesticillo vulgar," as thenovel's critics, snorted. The style itself does not compare with the best, itsgrammar leaves much to be desired. As a piece of literature, it will never beincluded in any Spanish anthology. And if the Noli can be rated as Rizal'smagnum opus, its sequel, El Filibusterismo can be called its counterpiece asfar as literary merit goes.The Fili is a rather undisciplined outpouring of smouldering hatred, evenof seething white-hot anger. In the Noli, Doctor Rizal uses the scalpel, deftlyhandling the sores and weak spots of his patients. But in the Fill, the doctorhas laid aside his art, and picks up blunt instruments, applies the crudestsurgical methods. The scalpel is laid aside, and he has picked up the bludgeonor the sledge hammer. There is haste, impetuosity. Restraint is cast to thewinds, caution is gone, like Basilio's prudence which has turned into petulantimpulsiveness. For in this novel, Rizal seems to say time is fast running out.At times, the tone is like the "riposte—a sudden thrust after parrying a lunge."But this thrust is like that of a novice fencer who is =familiar with the art andcan counter only with a "violent Still, as propaganda, the two novelsrank among the best.What did Rizal write? The plot of the Noli is rather loose. JuanCrisostomo Eibarramendia (Ibarra, for short) returns home after several yearsof study in Europe, ignorant of how his father died. In trying to find out whathappened, he uncovers corruption and abuse in high and low places ofPhilippine society. He is most shocked when he finds out his father had diedalone in jail, that his corpse had been disinterred and thrown into the lake atthe behest of a family friend, Fray Damaso Verdolagas. Instead of exactingvengeance, however, Ibarra decides to do good for the people, certain suchwould be his father's wish if he were still alive. But he is thwarted at everyturn. At the laying of the cornerstone of the school building he is erecting, acontrived accident almost kills him. During the fiesta dinner, Fray Damaso's184