[Sparrow]

Some of the Grimm stories are a bit grim; e.g. the last paragraph of Rumpelstiltskin:

""Perhaps your name is Rumpelstiltskin?"

"The devil has told you that! the devil has told you that!" cried the
little man, and in his anger he plunged his right foot so deep into the
earth that his whole leg went in; and then in rage he pulled at his left
leg so hard with both hands that he tore himself in two."

E. Nesbit wrote some classics.