Compagnon was a Fellow of the Fondation Thiers (1975-1978), taught at École Polytechnique (1978-1985), Institut français du Royaume-Uni, London (1980-1981), University of Rouen (1981-1985), was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (1986, 1990), Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1988),[1] Professor at University of Maine (France), Le Mans (1989-1990), visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford (1994), Professor at Paris-Sorbonne University (1994-2006).

He received an Honorary Degree of King's College London (2010), HEC Paris (2012), and University of Liège (2013), and the Claude Lévi-Strauss Prize of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques (2011).

In 2012, Compagnon did a daily broadcast on France Inter, Un été avec Montaigne.

In 2013, he curated a show of Proust's manuscripts from the Bibliothèque nationale de France at the Morgan Library.

[4] Compagnon edited Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann (Gallimard, Folio, 1988), Sodome et Gomorrhe (Gallimard, Pléiade, 1988; Folio, 1989), Carnets, in collaboration (Gallimard, 2002); Albert Thibaudet, Réflexions sur la politique (Robert Laffont, Bouquins, 2007), Réflexions sur la littérature (Gallimard, Quarto, 2007); Charles Péguy, L’Argent (Équateurs, 2008); Paul Bourget, Le Disciple (Le Livre de Poche, 2010); Maurice Barrès, Mes cahiers (Équateurs, 2010).