When that famous horseless carriage careered down the road in The Wind In The Willows, it marked one of the first and one of the most famous appearances of the car in literary history.
Published the same year that Henry Ford debuted the Model T, the novel also features the first literary car theft by Mr Toad, who proceeds to set forth on a spree of misadventures. Since then, cars have gone on to feature prominently in famous novels from the James Bond series to Harry Potter.
Sometimes, a car is just a car. Others, the automobile provides the perfect vehicle for authors to carry themes of independence, progress, wealth, sex, death and more. Whether weighted with symbolism or whether they’re just there to be cool, in honour of World Book Day here are five of the most famous automobiles in literary history.
Christine – 1958 Plymouth Fury
Long before driverless cars were a concept, Stephen King’s 1983 horror novel Christine featured the titular car possessed by demonic forces of an unknown origin, which pursued and killed the people who torment her owner, dorky Arnie Cunningham.
Christine was described as a dilapidated red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury, which reportedly derived its name from the Furies, deities of vengeance from ancient Greek mythology, who would punish whosoever had sworn a false oath.
True to the car’s nomenclature, Christine punishes, maims and murders wrongdoers throughout the novel and also in the film version, before meeting her ultimate end in a car crusher. Or so we think…
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Ford Anglia
Probably the most famous non-broomstick method of transportation in the Harry Potter universe, the famous flying 105E Ford Anglia was used by Harry and Ron to fly to Hogwarts. Magically modified, in addition to being able to fly the Anglia could also become invisible and could fit eight people, six wizards’ trunks, two owls and a rat comfortably.
Introduced in 1959, the 105E offered a much more toned-down appearance in comparison to American cars of its time, due largely to the fact that it was British-designed and made extensive use of wind tunnel testing.
In its first year, a total of 191,752 105E Anglias left Ford’s plant in Dagenham, at the time setting a new production record for the Ford Motor Company. To the best of anyone’s knowledge, however, an Invisibility Booster wasn’t a factory-fit option.
Fifty Shades of Grey – Audi R8 Spyder
If you’ve ever picked up one of the Fifty Shades books, you’ll know that Audis make an appearance throughout the series almost as much as the whips and chains do.
Just some of the cars used in the books and in their film counterpart include the A3 and the Q7 SUV, but despite the marque’s prominence the series’ author E.L. James doesn’t own an Audi, nor is she even particularly bothered about the brand at all.
Instead, she reportedly chose Audi due to the manufacturer’s image of blending high-end luxury style and sleek sexiness, with the R8 Spyder driven by series protagonist and kinky billionaire Christian Grey probably the best example of the lot.
The Great Gatsby – 1928 Rolls-Royce Tourer
The Great Gatsby is as much a dissection of the concept of the American Dream as it is a story about Jay Gatsby’s tragic captivation by love and by wealth, and cars play a hugely prominent role throughout the novel as a symbol of American society.
Gatsby’s car of choice is a bright yellow 1928 Rolls-Royce Tourer, which is elaborately described to suggest its status a powerful and magical object to be desired among America’s up-and-coming nouveau riche at the time.
Of course, the Roller notoriously becomes the ‘death car’ in the story, setting into motion the events that would spell the ultimate end for Gatsby and also parallels the ominous signs of socio-economic and moral collapse that would hit America just four years after the novel’s release.
Casino Royale – 1931 Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower
Although these days James Bond is synonymous with Aston Martin, so much so that the tyres created especially for the new DB11 are designated ‘S007’, his first car was in actual fact a Bentley.
The first Bond novel, 1953’s Casino Royale, saw 007 tool around in a 1931 Bentley 4.5 Litre Blower, which despite being nowhere near as sleek or sexy as say a DB5, was known as one of the finest and fastest cars of its day.
In fact, Bond only swapped to the Astons in 1959’s Goldfinger, after a fan wrote a letter to author Ian Fleming petitioning him to “have the decency to fix him up with a decent bit of machinery”. Originally, it was a DB3, but when the film version came out in 1964 producers went for the more recent DB5, and the rest, they say, is history.
