It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide
The Exorcist

The Exorcist

Quite possibly the most terrifying novel ever written . . .

Summary

Father Damien Karras: 'Where is Regan?'
Regan MacNeil: 'In here. With us.'


The terror begins unobtrusively. Noises in the attic. In the child's room, an odd smell, the displacement of furniture, an icy chill. At first, easy explanations are offered. Then frightening changes begin to appear in eleven-year-old Regan. Medical tests fail to shed any light on her symptoms, but it is as if a different personality has invaded her body.

Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit priest, is called in. Is it possible that a demonic presence has possessed the child? Exorcism seems to be the only answer...

First published in 1971, The Exorcist became a literary phenomenon and inspired one of the most shocking films ever made. This edition, polished and expanded by the author, includes new dialogue, a new character and a chilling new extended scene, provides an unforgettable reading experience that has lost none of its power to shock and continues to thrill and terrify new readers.

Reviews

  • A tremendous novel...fast, powerful and completely gripping
    Sunday Express

About the author

William Peter Blatty

The novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Peter Blatty was born in 1928. The Exorcist was first published in 1971 and has become one of the defining works of horror fiction. His other novels include The Ninth Configuration, Legion, Elsewhere and Dimiter. He died in 2017.
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more