Angels and Insects by A. S. Byatt

Like The French Lieutenant's Woman, the two novellas in this book (connected by a minor character)  are fiction about Victorian fiction, and the best reason to read them is if you've studied Victorian fiction and can't get enough of doing so. They're basically manifestations in novelistic form of every class on Victorian fiction I have ever taken. It's also highly inadvisable to read this book without first having read Tennyson's In Memoriam, since the two novellas can be seen as explorations of two aspects of the poem: the 'nature red in tooth and claw' (evolution, art and religion) part and Victorian ideas about the afterlife and spirituality. I liked 'The Conjugal Angel' (the second novella) much more than 'Morpho Eugenia' The description of insects in 'Morpho Eugenia' absolutely revolted me and were actually nauseating in parts, and I found the tone and style of 'Morpho Eugenia' very emotionally inaccessible; a sort of odd evolutionary fable engaging in extensive discussions of religion and science. 'The Conjugal Angel' I liked much better, I thought it was witty and funny and touching, and if you've ever thought that In Memoriam is (more than) a little bit gay and emotionally excessive, this is definitely a great read.