The Exorcist

Horror

First published: 1971
Print length: 379 pagesHarper, 2014

Description

William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist is a horror novel set in Washington, D.C., near Georgetown University. Eleven-year-old Regan MacNeil, the daughter of a famous actress, becomes the focus of a demonic possession. Two priests ultimately attempt to confront and exorcise the possessing demon, placing religious intervention at the center of the novel’s supernatural conflict. Blatty drew inspiration from a reported 1949 possession and exorcism case, providing a real-world point of departure for this fictional account. The story therefore combines a contemporary urban setting with a direct struggle against an apparently inhuman force threatening a child.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Atmospheric · Descriptive · Dialogue-driven · Direct

Pace

Measured

Tone

Dark · Frightening · Tense · Unsettling

Structure

Linear

Focus

Atmosphere · Character · Plot

Emotional intensity

5 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 3 / 5
Ideas: 3 / 5
Structure: 3 / 5
Background knowledge: 1 / 5

Themes

FamilyGuiltMoralityReligion and faithSurvivalTrauma

About William Peter Blatty

William Peter Blatty was an American writer, director, and producer whose career ranged from comic fiction to horror, film, and memoir. His early books included comic novels, but he is best known for the 1971 novel The Exorcist and his screenplay for its 1973 film adaptation. The Exorcist places demonic possession and religious intervention at the center of its conflict, while Legion follows a murder investigation into a psychiatric hospital amid crimes marked by blasphemous details. In these two novels, Blatty joined supernatural threats to questions of belief and the methods of investigation. His later nonfiction book Finding Peter combined personal remembrance with an argument for providence and life after death, extending his engagement with religious belief into memoir.

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: Harper
Language: English
ISBN: 9780062094353

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