The Exorcist (novel)
William Peter Blatty's 1971 bestseller about the possession of twelve-year-old Regan MacNeil.
The Exorcist is a 1971 horror novel by William Peter Blatty, published by Harper & Row. It tells of the demonic possession of twelve-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, and the two Catholic priests who try to drive the demon out. It was the basis of the 1973 film, whose screenplay Blatty also wrote and produced, and of the whole Exorcist franchise.
Quick Facts
- Author
- William Peter Blatty
- Country
- United States
- Language
- American English
- Genre
- Horror
- Publisher
- Harper & Row
- Released
- May 5, 1971
- Format
- Print (hardcover, paperback)
- Pages
- 340 (first edition)
Facts from the source article.
Background
The novel opens with Father Lankester Merrin, an elderly Jesuit, on a dig in northern Iraq, where he finds a small statue of the demon Pazuzu and takes it as a warning that he will face an old enemy again. In Georgetown, the actress Chris MacNeil is filming a movie and renting a house with her daughter Regan, who finds a Ouija board in the basement and talks to 'Captain Howdy'. Regan falls ill and changes; the local Holy Trinity Church is desecrated, Chris's director Burke Dennings is killed, and Detective Kinderman begins asking questions.
After the doctors fail, Chris turns to Father Damien Karras, a Jesuit psychiatrist in a crisis of faith; the bishop has Merrin lead the exorcism with Karras assisting. Merrin, who has a heart condition, dies during the rite, and Karras makes the demon take him instead and jumps from Regan's window. Blatty based the book on a 1949 exorcism he heard about as a Georgetown student, and modelled Merrin partly on the archaeologist Gerald Lankester Harding. A 40th-anniversary edition with small revisions by Blatty appeared in 2011.
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