The Exorcist: Quite possibly the most terrifying novel ever written . . .
William Peter Blatty's notorious novel opens with a deceptively quiet unease. Strange sounds drift from the attic. A child's bedroom carries an odd odour, furniture shifts inexplicably, and a bone-deep cold settles in the air. Reasonable explanations come and go. Then eleven-year-old Regan begins to change, and reasonable explanations are no longer on the table. Medical science draws a blank. Something has taken up residence inside the girl, something that speaks with a voice entirely its own. Enter Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit priest wrestling with his own doubts, who must confront the possibility that demonic possession is not the stuff of medieval fantasy but a living, breathing horror standing right in front of him. Exorcism, it seems, is the only road left. First published in 1971, the book quickly became a cultural flashpoint, inspiring a film that left audiences genuinely shaken. This revised and expanded edition, reworked by Blatty himself, introduces new dialogue, a previously absent character, and a particularly chilling extended passage that adds fresh weight to the story. Far from feeling like a tinkered-with relic, it reads with a raw, unsettling energy that time has done nothing to blunt. If horror fiction is your territory, this one belongs on the shelf.
- Author: William Peter Blatty
- Publisher: Corgi
- Genre: Horror
- ISBN: 978-0552166775
- Pages: 400 pages