diff --git a/rdf.cabal b/rdf.cabal
--- a/rdf.cabal
+++ b/rdf.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:                 rdf
-version:              0.1.0.7
+version:              0.1.0.8
 synopsis:             Representation and Incremental Processing of RDF Data
 description:
     Data structures, parsers, and encoders for RDF data sets based on the
@@ -27,14 +27,14 @@
                     , Data.RDF.Parser.NQuads
                     , Data.RDF.ToRDF
   other-modules:      Data.RDF.Internal
-  build-depends:      base >=4.11 && < 5.0
-                    , attoparsec >=0.13 && <0.14.5
-                    , bytestring >=0.10 && <0.11.5
-                    , deepseq >=1.4 && <1.5
-                    , dlist >= 0.7 && <1.1
-                    , fgl >=5.5 && <5.9
-                    , text >=1.2 && <2.1
-                    , transformers >=0.4 && <0.7
+  build-depends:      base >=4.11 && <5.0
+                    , attoparsec >=0.13 && <0.15
+                    , bytestring >=0.10 && <0.14
+                    , deepseq >=1.4 && <1.7
+                    , dlist >= 0.7 && <1.2
+                    , fgl >=5.5 && <6
+                    , text >=1.2 && <2.3
+                    , transformers >=0.4 && <0.8
   hs-source-dirs:     src
   ghc-options:        -Wall
                       -fwarn-identities
diff --git a/src/Data/RDF/Internal.hs b/src/Data/RDF/Internal.hs
--- a/src/Data/RDF/Internal.hs
+++ b/src/Data/RDF/Internal.hs
@@ -26,6 +26,8 @@
 
 import Data.Char
 
+import Data.Functor
+
 import Data.String
 
 import GHC.Generics
@@ -381,22 +383,24 @@
           valIRIType  = LiteralIRIType <$> (A.string "^^" *> parseEscapedIRI)
           valLangType = LiteralLangType <$> (A.char '@' *> A.takeWhile1 isLang)
           isLang c    = isAlphaNum c || (c == '-')
-          escString = unescapeAll <$> A.scan False machine
-          machine False '\\' = Just True
-          machine False '"'  = Nothing
-          machine False _    = Just False
-          machine True _     = Just False
-          unescapeAll = T.concat . unescapeFrag . T.splitOn "\\"
-          unescapeFrag []     = []
-          unescapeFrag (f:fs) = case T.uncons f of
-                Nothing        -> f : unescapeFrag fs
-                (Just (e, f')) -> T.singleton (unescape e) : f' : unescapeFrag fs
-          unescape 't' = '\t'
-          unescape 'b' = '\b'
-          unescape 'n' = '\n'
-          unescape 'r' = '\r'
-          unescape 'f' = '\f'
-          unescape c   = c
+
+          escString :: A.Parser T.Text
+          escString = T.pack <$> A.manyTill escChar (A.char '"')
+
+          escChar :: A.Parser Char
+          escChar = A.char '\\' *> (unescape <|> pure '\\')
+              <|> A.satisfy (/= '"')
+
+          unescape :: A.Parser Char
+          unescape =
+              (A.char 't' $> '\t')
+              <|> (A.char 'b' $> '\b')
+              <|> (A.char 'n' $> '\n')
+              <|> (A.char 'r' $> '\r')
+              <|> (A.char 'f' $> '\f')
+              <|> (A.char '"' $> '"')
+              <|> (A.char '\\' $> '\\')
+
 
 -- | Parse an RDF 'Literal', including the 'LiteralType' if present.
 parseLiteral :: A.Parser Literal