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 MacNeil. 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 - published in 2014 - is Blatty's preferred version. Polished and expanded by him, the narrative included new dialogue, a new character and a new - and chilling - extended scene. It may be fifty-plus years since this classic novel was first published, but in that time it has lost none of its power to shock, thrill and terrify its readers.

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.