In more than a century since its appearance, Jos? Rizal's "Noli Me Tangere" has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, ?The Noli, ? as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience?and martyr?for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province. BACKCOVER: A beautiful new translation... Rizal's rich, moving novel...[is] perhaps the most important novel in Philippine literature. ?Jessica Hagedorn