Brothers Grimm

Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were a pair of 19th century German scholars who began collecting ancient German folktales as a way of researching the philological aspects of law. Naturally, I have no wish to pressure anyone, but their collection of 210 ten stories--the complete Children's Stories and Household Tales--is imperative reading for anyone with any interest in understanding Western civilization. So if you haven't read them, I'm afraid you need to hotfoot it to your local library and remedy the situation. Right now.

Aftertaste:
Not to put too fine a point upon it, but most of these stories are revolting. They're full of people being blinded and stuffed in casks filled with nails and rolled into the river. Hey, we here at Wordcandy promise "entertaining", not "pleasant".

Availability:
Everywhere.

Other Recommendations:
Deerskin, Beauty and Spindle's End, by Robin McKinley

The fairy tale bits in A.S. Byatt's Possession and Angels and Insects