The car has had a good run from the first 'horseless carriage' to the Automobile Age

The 'horseless carriage' driven by Bertha Benz for the first long distance road trip by automobile. Photo by unknown author - Benz, Carl Friedrich: Lebensfahrt eines deutschen Erfinders. Die Erfindung des Automobils, Erinnerungen eines Achtzigjährigen. Leipzig 1936, S. 155-156. zeno.org, Public Domain

In his 2013 novel The Automobile Club of Egypt, Alaa Al Aswany portrays a famous author trying to find the right beginning for a new book.

First, he tries a sort of meta-beginning, in which a famous author (Mr Al Aswany?) is admonished by his characters for leaving out bits of their stories and handed an improved manuscript. End of story.

The second attempt at a beginning tells the story of the invention of the first car, the “horseless carriage,” by Karl Benz in Mannheim, Germany in 1885. His wife Bertha drives the car a hundred miles and the world is changed. End of story.

The third and final beginning starts as it means to go on. We are in 1940s Cairo, cars are a sign of wealth and the Au…