diff --git a/Lib/email/Utils.py b/Lib/email/Utils.py
index 49232f71db7..2b8b94fec49 100644
--- a/Lib/email/Utils.py
+++ b/Lib/email/Utils.py
@@ -54,8 +54,8 @@ EMPTYSTRING = ''
 UEMPTYSTRING = u''
 CRLF = '\r\n'
 
-specialsre = re.compile(r'[][\()<>@,:;".]')
-escapesre = re.compile(r'[][\()"]')
+specialsre = re.compile(r'[][\\()<>@,:;".]')
+escapesre = re.compile(r'[][\\()"]')