TMoP, Chap 1, Page 1, Paragraph 1

[Richard Ryan]

"October, 1869.  A droshky passes slowly down a street in the Haymarket district of St Petersburg.  Before a tall tenement building the driver reins in his horse."

One of the first things that might strike a reader inclined to notice and ponder such aspects of "The Master of Petersburg" is that the novel begins in the third person present, or more precisely, the third person limited present.  Without being literally a stream of conscious novel, the effect of this viewpoint is to give the novel a certain psychological immediacy, an internalized quality.  At the same time, the authorial voice maintains at least the vestiges of realism and objectivity traditionally associated with the third person viewpoint. 

The third person present is a rare enough point of view that Wikipedia's list of novels by viewpoint doesn't include any told in this person and tense (a deficiency which can now be corrected....)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_novels_by_point_of_view