The Reign of Greed

Thirteen years after the events of the first book, Crisóstomo Ibarra returns to Manila disguised as Simoun, a rich jeweller with a grudge, and pushes the colony toward a rising he means to profit from. José Rizal had it printed in Ghent in 1891, paying the printer in instalments as the money came; five years later the Spanish authorities shot him. The Philippines read it as the sequel that stopped pretending reform was possible. Sixty paintings by Juan Luna and Mariano Fortuny Marsal, from the Spoliarium to Philippine scenes, carry the colonial world that drives the novel's greed and grief.