THE PUBLISHING OF NOLI ME TANGERE IN BERLIN (1988)

The bleak winter of 1886 was memorable in the life of Rizal for two reasons: first, it was a painful
episode for he was hungry, sick and despondent in a strange city, and second it brought him great joy,
after enduring so much sufferings, because his first novel Noli Me Tangere came off the press in March
1887. Like the legendary Santa Claus, Dr. Maximo Viola, his friend from Bulacan, arrived in Berlin at the
height of his despondency and loaned him the needed funds to publish the novel.

Idea of Writing a Novel in the Philippines

His reading of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which portrays the brutalities of American
salve-owners and the pathetic conditions of the unfortunate negro slaves, inspired by DR. Jose Rizal to
prepare a novel that would depict the miseries of his people under the lash of Spanish tyrants. He was
then a student in the Central University of Madrid.

In a reunion of Filipinos in the Paterno residence in Madrid on January 2, 1884, Rizal proposed the
writing of a novel about the Philippines by a group of Filipinos. His proposal was unanimously approved
by those present, among whom were the Paternos (Pedro, Maximo, and Antonio), Graciano Lopez
Jaena, Evaristo Aguirre, Eduardo Lete, Julio Llorente, Melecio Figueroa, and Valentin Ventura.

Unfortunately, Rizal’s project did not materialize. Those compatriots who were expected to collaborate
on the novel did not write anything. The novel was designed to cover all phases of Philippine life.
However, almost everybody wanted to write on women. Rizal was disgusted at such flippancy. He was
more disgusted to see that his companions, instead of working seriously on the novel, wasted their time
gambling or flirting with Spanish senoritas.

Undaunted by his friends’ indifference, he determined to write the novel alone.