NIGHT_MARE08

Noli Me Tangere

Noli me tangere ( Touch me not) was a novel written by the polymath, Dr. Jose P. Rizal. This Book was

published at Berlin, Germany, in the year of 1887. This was written during the Spaniards colonization rule in

the Philippines. This book undergone so many translations, since this was originally written by Rizal using

the Spanish language. One of those said translations, were translated by Glady Gimena and Leslie S.

Navarro. This was published by the Prime Multi-Quality Printing Corp. in 2009. This book was followed by

El Filibusterismo which means “The Reign of Greed”, and also followed by Makamisa which means “After

Mass” which Rizal unfinished to write the story.

Juan Crisostomo Ibarra, returns to the Philippines after seven- year of studying in Europe. He aims to

contribute in the development of his town. He wants that education will be more accessible to many. But his

dream to his town will never succeed because of his enemies ways on destroying him. Ibarra knows that his

father, Don Rafael Ibarra had been involved in a quarrel with Padre Damaso, which eventually causes to his

fathers death. Padre Salvi was his another enemy, who lusts after Maria Clara, Ibarra’s sweetheart and also

causes Ibarra’s almost death at the ground breaking ceremonies for the school. Ibarra was imprisoned but

rescued by Elias, which life was saved by Ibarra in the past. As the novel ends, the love story of Ibarra and

Maria were not continued because Maria Clara choose to live in rectory, and Ibarra was never seen after

being saved by Elias, While Padre Damaso was found dead the day after he was reassigned to a distant

province.

Glady Gimena is a talented Comic writer in 90’s. She became active in writing a full-length novel that

was published in GASI and Kislap. She graduated Cum Laude in her course BA Major in Creative Writing

in Filipino on 2002, a college teacher and a textbook writer which she made her own versions of Rizal’s

Creations. She became one of the judges in Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Short stories
category. The main points why Gimena made her own version of Noli was to make this heritage novel

accessible to many. This book serves as a big mark of our history, on how our ancestors suffered in the

hands of Spaniards. Compared to the original one, this revision is quit good. On reading the book, I got lost,

because of deep tagalog words that I can not understand. The creativity of the cover make the book more

eye-catchy, and
 Reference:

Gimena, G,E.& Navarro, L,S. (2009). Ang pinaikling bersiyon: Noli me tangere. Philippines:Prime

Multi-Quality Printing Corporation.

Reyes, S,S. (n.d.). Executive summary f “Noli Me Tangere”. retrieved from:

https://www.kapitbisig.com/philippines/noli-me-tangere-the-social-cancer-by-dr-jose-riza-book-notes-summ

ary-in-enlish

Francisco
 the POV’s were consistent. My patriotic fervor as a Filipino becomes stronger. There were some parts

that I got bored while reading most specially on the long chapters, maybe if the author made the chapters

more simple yet understandable, maybe I did not get bored. In the other way, there were vocabulary after

each chapter that helps the readers to understand the story easier. This book is worth reading for.