Morpho Eugenia is a 1992 novella

Novella

A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...

 by A. S. Byatt

A. S. Byatt

Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...

 first published in complete form with The Conjugal Angel as Angels & Insects

Angels & Insects

Angels & Insects is a 1995 romance drama film directed by Philip Haas. It was written by Philip and Belinda Haas with A. S. Byatt after her novella Morpho Eugenia.-Plot:...

. It details the key events of the life of a Victorian naturalist, William Adamson, at first seemingly struggling to move up in class and settle down with a beautiful, mysterious aristocrat, Eugenia. When he begins a study of garden ants with the household tutor, Matty Crompton, he discovers the endless layers of interpretation that hide truths (but not The Truth) behind what he has taken for granted about God, science, England, gender, and family.

The novella is notable for its use of blend of postmodern and Victorian fiction, as well as philosophy and science. Its integral use of hybridity

Hybridity

Hybridity refers in its most basic sense to mixture. The term originates from biology and was subsequently employed in linguistics and in racial theory in the nineteenth century. Its contemporary uses are scattered across numerous academic disciplines and is salient in popular culture...

, reflexivity, and hypertextuality

Hypertextuality

Hypertextuality is a postmodern theory of the inter-connectedness of all literary works and their interpretation.The prefix 'hyper' is derived from the Greek 'above, beyond or outside'...

make it a postmodern work overall, however.