A Thousand Acres

For the film adaptation, see A Thousand Acres (film).

A Thousand Acres
Hardcover first edition cover
Author	Jane Smiley
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Domestic Realism
Publisher	Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date	October 23, 1991
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	367
ISBN	0-394-57773-6
OCLC	23941156
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 20
LC Class	PS3569.M39 T47 1991

A Thousand Acres is a 1991 novel by American author Jane Smiley. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name.

The novel is a modernized retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear and is set on a thousand-acre (four hundred hectares) farm in Iowa that is owned by a family of a father and his three daughters. It is told through the point of view of the oldest daughter, Ginny.

Plot summary

Larry Cook is an aging farmer who decides to incorporate his farm, handing complete and joint ownership to his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and Caroline. When the youngest daughter objects, she is removed from the agreement. This sets off a chain of events that brings dark truths to light and explodes long-suppressed emotions, as the story eventually reveals the long-term sexual abuse of the two eldest daughters that was committed by their father.

The plot also focuses on Ginny's troubled marriage, her difficulties in bearing a child and her relationship with her family.

Similarities to King Lear

There are many similarities between King Lear and A Thousand Acres, including both plot details and character development.^[1] For example, some of the names of the main characters in the novel are reminiscent of their Shakespearean counterparts. Larry is Lear, Ginny is Goneril, Rose is Regan, and Caroline is Cordelia. The role of the Cooks' neighbors, Harold Clark and his sons Loren and Jess, also rework the importance of Gloucester, Edgar and Edmund in King Lear.

The novel maintains major themes present in Lear, namely: gender roles, appearances vs. reality, generational conflict, hierarchical structures (the Great chain of being), madness, and the powerful force of nature.^[1]

Correspondences between the characters in the novel and in the play

Larry Cook = King Lear
Ginny Cook Smith = Goneril
Rose Cook Lewis = Regan
Caroline Cook Rasmussen = Cordelia
Frank Rasmussen = King of France
Ty Smith = Duke of Albany
Pete Lewis = Duke of Cornwall
Jess Clark = Edmund
Harold Clark = Earl of Gloucester
Loren Clark = Edgar
Marv Carson (The Fool)^[2]

References

External links

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1976–2000)

Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (1976) Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (1978) The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1979) The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer (1980) A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1981) Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (1982) The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983) Ironweed by William Kennedy (1984) Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (1985) Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (1986) A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor (1987) Beloved by Toni Morrison (1988) Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler (1989) The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos (1990) Rabbit at Rest by John Updike (1991) A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (1992) A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (1993) The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (1994) The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (1995) Independence Day by Richard Ford (1996) Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser (1997) American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1998) The Hours by Michael Cunningham (1999) Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)

Complete list (1918–1925) (1926–1950) (1951–1975) (1976–2000) (2001–2025)

William Shakespeare's King Lear

Characters

Sources

Adaptations

Plays	The History of King Lear (1681) The Yiddish King Lear (1892) Safed Khoon (1907) Lear (1971)

Novels	La Terre (1887) A Thousand Acres (1991) Fool (2009)

Opera	Re Lear (Libretto only) (1896) Lear (1978) Kuningas Lear (2000)

Films	Gunasundari Katha (1949) King Lear (1971 USSR) King Lear (1971 UK) Ran (1985) King Lear (1987) A Thousand Acres (1997) Gypsy Lore (1997) King Lear (1999) My Kingdom (2001) King of Texas (2002) Baghban (2003) Second Generation (2003) Life Goes On (2009)

Television	King Lear (1953) BBC Television Shakespeare (1982) King Lear (1983) King Lear (2008) Empire (2015)

Story within a story	The Dresser (1980 play) The Dresser (1983 film) The Dresser (2015 film)

Other	Tiriel (1789, poem) The Prince of the Pagodas (1957, ballet) The Tragedy of King Lear (screenplay)

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