It's a Hardback Life

This one is probably cheating, as it is not a reference from a work of fiction. But it made me laugh, so here goes.

In Bitch in a Bonnet (Vol. II), Robert Rodi attempts to "save" Jane Austen from her current romance-addled Janeite fanbase. According to Rodi, Austen would find the overwrought Kiera Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice literally laughable (pg 132):

Seriously, though, Austen was-as I've noted before- a daughter of the Enlightenment, and a steely-eyed observer of human behavior. Nothing, to her, would be more ridiculous than the kind of harps-and-violins crap that you find in, oh, say, Hollywood versions of Jane Austen Novels. (Think of that final makout-session-in-nightshirts scene from the Keira Knightley Pride and Prejudice. Austen would have thrown popcorn at the screen. And missed, because her aim would be lousy due to laughing so hard.)