Description

The phenomenal #1 bestseller that inspired the classic motion picture—= the most terrifying and unforgettable horror novel ever written—now available as a Harper Perennial Olive Edition.

“A page-turner par excellence. Poe and Mary Shelley would recognize [Blatty] as working in their ambiguous limbo between the natural and the supernatural . . . hair-rising.”—Life

“Read the book. It's an experience you will never forget.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch 

Originally published in 1971, The Exorcist was a bestselling literary phenomenon and one of the most frightening—and controversial—novels ever written. Based on true events—a child’s demonic possession in the 1940s—it is the story of eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil, whose sudden disturbing, and often violent, behavior drive her desperate mother, Chris, a famous actress, to eventually seek help from two Catholic priests, men who will risk everything—including their own souls— to free the girl from an ancient malevolent force possessing her.

Purposefully raw and profane, this novel still has the extraordinary ability to shock readers and cause them to forget that it is “just a story.”

About the Author

William Peter Blatty (1928-2017) was the bestselling author of The Exorcist, which he turned into an Academy Award–winning screenplay. The son of immigrant parents, he was a comic novelist before embarking on a four-decade career as a successful Hollywood writer. Blatty died on January 12, 2017, in Bethesda, Maryland.

Praise For…

"A horror story for all midnights." — The Boston Globe

"There are not many readers who will be unmoved. Written in a literate style, The Exorcist is to most other novels of its kind as an Einstein equation is to an accountant's column of figures." — New York Times Book Review

"Immensely satisfying, it hold its readers in a vise-like grip worthy of Poe." — Los Angeles Times

"Wonderfully exciting." — Newsweek

"Absolutely superb. Blatty makes you think this scary tale really might have happened." — Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Up till dawn, I was, with The Exorcist. A shocker . . . driving to a violent conclusion." — Cosmopolitan

"A page-turner par excellence. Poe and Mary Shelley would recognize [Blatty] as working in their ambiguous limbo between the natural and the supernatural . . . hair-rising." — Life

"A tremendous novel . . . fast, powerful, and completely gripping, a hypnotic combination of morality tale and supernatural detective story. A parable for our times, a stunning achievement." — London Sunday Express

"The Exorcist should be read twice; the first time for the passion and horrifying intensity of the story, with a second reading to savor the subtleties of language and phrasing. . . . It's an experience you will never forget." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Suspense that never lets up!" — Publishers Weekly

"A fantastic and deeply religious novel that will touch the reader to his very soul as it touches on things in this world that cannot be explained away rationally." — Texas Abilene Reporter-News