diff --git a/java/com/google/re2j/Parser.java b/java/com/google/re2j/Parser.java
index 0e73e701..e83f8ccf 100644
--- a/java/com/google/re2j/Parser.java
+++ b/java/com/google/re2j/Parser.java
@@ -1344,7 +1344,7 @@ private static int parseEscape(StringIterator t) throws PatternSyntaxException {
     bigswitch:
     switch (c) {
       default:
-        if (!Utils.isalnum(c)) {
+        if (c <= Unicode.MAX_ASCII && !Utils.isalnum(c)) {
           // Escaped non-word characters are always themselves.
           // PCRE is not quite so rigorous: it accepts things like
           // \q, but we don't.  We once rejected \_, but too many
diff --git a/javatests/com/google/re2j/ParserTest.java b/javatests/com/google/re2j/ParserTest.java
index a97b7599..39c9272f 100644
--- a/javatests/com/google/re2j/ParserTest.java
+++ b/javatests/com/google/re2j/ParserTest.java
@@ -551,6 +551,9 @@ private static String runesToString(int[] runes) {
     "(?<foo>bar)(?<foo>baz)",
     "\\x", // https://github.com/google/re2j/issues/103
     "\\xv", // https://github.com/google/re2j/issues/103
+    "^[a-z0-9\\–\\-'‘’]+$",
+    "[\\”\\“]\"",
+    "[\\<\\>\\{\\}\\[\\]\\|\\\”\\%\\~\\#]",
   };
 
   private static final String[] ONLY_PERL = {