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Ooh, this is a fun question and I have to give it more thought.
The first one that occurs to me are the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. I had a beautifully bound and illustrated book that was obviously not meant for young children, although kids were a hardier breed back then, I think.
But some of those stories! The Red Shoes, where the little girl had her feet chopped off so she could stop dancing. The Little Match Girl, where she froze to death after lighting all her stock. (And both of these were supposedly happy endings!). Kay with the sliver of the troll’s mirror in his heart, and Gerda’s travails to rescue him in The Snow Queen. However, while they disturbed me, I read and reread them just the same.
It reminds me of when I took my nephew to see a production of Hansel and Gretel with his preschool class. We’d read the story several times in preparation and discussed it thoroughly, only to find on the event that the story had been totally expurgated. No mean stepmother, no abandonment in the woods, no child-eating witch. Why bother?
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