It first started when he came back home to his homeland in Calamba, Laguna, in October 1887, then he revised some chapters in London and completed the book in Ghent, Belgium, in 1891. It is a continuation of Noli Me Tangere, and it has 39 chapters. El Filibusterismo, “The Reign of greed” (Ang Paghahari ng Kasakiman), is a political novel; it is a “work of the head"—a " “book of thought"—and"contains bitterness, hatred, pain, violence, and sorrow. More politically, Crisostomo plans for his revenge after 13 years. He was falsely suspected of being dead in the last chapter of Noli. But the truth is that Sisa and Eelias died in the Noli, not Crisostomo. Ibarra in the novel changes his name to Simon, the wealthy jeweler. He returns for Maria Clara, where Maria is in the hands of priests because she continues to be a madre (mother of the church or a servant of God) after the tragedy of the fake death news of Crisostomo. And Ibarra is able to carry out his revenge plan on people who mistreated his townspeople. Jose Rizal dedicated El Fili to the three martyr priests who were falsely accused of sedition and treason. Following their unjustified deaths, they were sentenced to public execution by the garrote led by the Spanish authorities. 

Ferdinand Blumentritt, Graciano Lopez Jaena, and Dr. Rafel Palma agreed that El Filibusterismo is superior to Noli Me Tangere. Lopez Jaena wrote a letter to Rizal dated October 2, 1891, saying, “El Filibusterismo is a novel superior to your Noli Me Tangere, as much for its exquisite and delicate. Literary style and easy and correct dialogue. It's clear phraseology, vigorous and elegant, as for its profound ideas and sublime thoughts,” but Jaena was not satisfied with the ending of El Fili. “End is not a worthy climax to a work so beautiful.” He also advised Rizal to write another novel that would give a definite solution to the country’s problem. While Mariano Ponce commented that El Fili is “indeed excellent, I can say nothing of your book, but this: it is really marvelous, like all the brilliant production of your pen. It is a true twin of “Noli''.” The reason for El Fili to be published, even though Rizal has not had enough money to publish it, is because of the help of Valentin Ventura. Both are instruments in awakening the nationalism of the Filipinos, and they were written in Spanish.