A Thousand Acres is a historical fiction novel by the American author Jane Smiley. Taking place on an Iowa farm in the 1970s, the novel is a contemporary retelling of William Shakespeare’s tragedy King Lear. Shakespeare’s play focuses on King Lear as he determines which of his three daughters will inherit his kingdom depending on how much they flatter him. Smiley’s novel reimagines Shakespeare’s tragedy on an Iowa farm in the 1970s as Larry Cook decides to incorporate his farm and give joint ownership to his three daughters, Ginny, Rose, and Caroline. However, when Caroline hesitates to accept this inheritance, Larry cuts her out of the will, setting a series of tragic events into motion. Like the play, the novel explores themes such as The Impact and Harm of Gender Roles, Appearance Versus Reality, and The Quest for Power and Revenge.

While Shakespeare’s play focuses primarily on Lear’s perspective, Smiley’s novel focuses on the eldest daughter Ginny’s perspective. This allows the novel to explore complex family relationships, which is something Smiley’s fiction is known for. The novel was published in 1991 and won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It was adapted into a movie in 1997 starring Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfieffer, and Colin Firth.

This guide refers to the 2003 paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: This guide describes and analyzes the source text’s treatment of child abuse, sexual abuse, incest, death by suicide, misogyny, infertility, pregnancy loss, and mental health conditions.

Plot Summary

Larry Cook, a wealthy and respected farmer, decides he wants to transfer ownership of his farm to his daughters early, hoping to avoid them having to pay estate taxes. After talking to his lawyer and the local banker, Marv Carson, he decides to form a corporation and give joint ownership of it to his daughters and their partners. He reveals this plan drunkenly at his best friend and neighbor Harold’s pig roast, which is being held to celebrate the return of Harold’s son Jess. Larry has three daughters: Ginny, the oldest, is married to Ty and has no children; Rose, the middle child, is recovering from breast cancer, has two daughters, and is married to Pete; and Caroline, the youngest, is a lawyer and lives in Des Moines. Rose and Ginny are amenable to taking on the farm earlier than expected, while Caroline is not. When she conveys her reluctance, Larry disowns her, giving all his land to Rose and Ginny.

After the transfer of the farm, Larry struggles with his identity and his newfound lack of power. Larry begins to act erratically, buying furniture and then leaving it outside to be destroyed in the rain. He spends his days driving all over the state aimlessly. He eventually wrecks his truck while driving drunk, leading Ginny to chastise him and threaten to take away his license. Larry continues to get angrier and angrier about his lack of power and his daughters’ treatment of him. In the middle of a massive storm, Larry steals Pete’s truck, and, when he returns, he yells at Ginny and Rose, cursing them for taking his land away from him. His daughters try to reason with him, but he goes off into the storm alone. He turns up at Harold’s house and stays with him. Jess, whom Ginny has become increasingly attached to, serves as her confidant and voice of reason during this time. The two soon begin having an affair.

People in town and Caroline are scandalized at Larry’s exile in the middle of the storm and blame Ginny and Rose. People begin to believe that the women have somehow connived Larry out of his farm. As Ginny and Rose try to figure out what to do, Rose tells Ginny that both of them were sexually abused by Larry when they were teenagers. Ginny refuses to accept this fact but eventually does remember being assaulted by her father.

Larry goes to live with Caroline, and the two sue Ginny, Ty, Rose, and Pete in an attempt to get the farm back due to mismanagement. While the suit is unsuccessful, it has dire consequences. During this period, Harold is blinded in a farm accident, and Jess is disowned.

Rose begins her own affair with Jess, and, when she tells Pete, he drives his car into a local quarry and drowns. Ginny, furious at her sister’s betrayal, attempts to poison her but is unsuccessful. Ginny and Ty’s marriage dissolves, primarily due to Ty’s stress over keeping the farm afloat and repaying a massive loan he took out to expand the hog operations, something Marv Carson encouraged him to do.

Following the hearing, Ginny decides to leave Ty, moving to Minnesota to become a server. Larry dies of a heart attack in the grocery store with Caroline by his side. Ty, unable to make loan repayments, must sell the farm to Rose and move to Texas to search for work.

When Rose’s breast cancer returns and spreads, Ginny comes back to the farm to care for her sister. Rose dies, and Ginny takes her nieces back with her to Minnesota. Rose purposefully did not leave the farm to her daughters because she wanted them to be able to escape the land, something she was never able to do. As a result, Ginny and Caroline sell the land at a loss. Ginny continues to make payments on the farm to the IRS, viewing this monthly bill as her “inheritance.”