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The sequel to Noli Me Tangere with its unarguably utopian vision, El Filibusterismo offers a much bleaker picture of the last decades of the nineteenth century. Crisostomo Ibarra, the reformist hero of the earlier novel, has come back to the Philippines as the enigmatic stranger named Simoun, a rich jeweller.

The first of two canonical 19th-century novels, Noli Me Tangere revolves around Crisostomo Ibarra who, after a seven-year stay in Europe to study, comes home to his town of San Diego, brimming with the desire to contribute to the development of the townspeople.